Maid Unleashed
by totallyrae
Summary: When Raven Roth attempts to escape from a certain masked enemy, she stumbles right into the home of the Teen Titans. The next thing she knows, she's a maid. NOW COMPLETE WITH EPILOGUE.
1. A Gigantic T

She ran in the darkness of the night, her dark blue cloak billowing behind her. She had always been accustomed to darkness –she even preferred it to light- but now it seemed to be closing in around her, threatening to suffocate her if she did not move fast enough. She could hear his footsteps behind her, slow and unhurried, but no matter how hard she ran, he could somehow catch up with her, his breath on her neck. No matter where she teleported to, he always seemed to find her, thanks to that device he had implanted under her skin when she was under his capture.

For the fifth time that day, Raven Roth teleported.

A feeble attempt considering the fact that she had literally no more energy left to use her powers, but at least she got herself at a lake. _When the hell was there a lake in this damned city? _When she left Azarath, the first thing she saw was a pizza place, she wandered around for a few days to get used to Earth, and then someone had grabbed her from behind and knocked her out. And the next thing she knew, she was tied up in some laboratory, which looked like some factory with all its machinery. What happened after was unpleasant, and she winced as she pulled up the sleeves of her leotard to examine the multiple bruises and scars on her arm. She wanted to heal herself, but summoning her powers felt the same as constipating. _Fuck. My head hurts. _She rubbed her head, wincing again at the pain, then turned to find an enormous tower in front of her. Maybe it was just her wild imagination, but what she saw was definitely a gigantic _T_.

_Oh my word. A fucking big T. _She felt faint. Maybe she would just die here and now, and when someone found her body she would look like that poor little girl in the human fairy tale who couldn't sell any matchsticks or vegetables or tissue paper or whatever that was, and people will give her a nice big funeral. (Well, in the Azarathian fairy tale, it wasn't the same, because that poor little girl was actually a 16-year-old demoness and she got killed because she pissed off one 6-eyed demon by trying to sell him demon spectacles.) And the newspapers will read _Penniless Girl?/Alien?/Woman? in Goth-like Costume Died After Seeing a Big T_. Whatever that tower was, there had to be people inside, and considering humans (excluding the one that tortured her for hours in that factory-slash-laboratory), she will definitely be taken in and be treated like a dying patient. She stumbled towards the door –why were there so many weird buttons?- and thumped her fists against the door with all her might. She was going to collapse, she just knew it, but she could not afford to be found by that masked bastard again. She didn't know how he did it, but whenever he was around her she could not use her powers, her mind became unfocused and the next thing she knew he was inflicting pain on her, whipping her with something she couldn't see, forcing her to submit to him. _"Serve me,"_ he hissed, _"and maybe I could spare you the agony of dying a painful death."_ It sounded so cheesy, come to think of it, but at that time she couldn't do anything. She couldn't let herself get captured again. She _wouldn't _let herself get captured again. If she had to give up her own life to do it, she would.

She rammed her whole body against the huge metal door, screaming, "Open the door, someone open the door!" She must have sounded like some maniac, because the next thing she knew the door had opened, and a very shocked person was standing there. He had spiky hair which was ruffled into a very messy state, a mask plastered on his face, and a long pole in one muscular arm, looking as if he was ready to swing the pole in her face any moment. He could be called handsome if her eyesight wasn't so blurred, because now his face was just a patch of beige. "Jesus…" she heard him breathe as she stared at him, trying to focus on his face. Before he could continue, she had collapsed right into his arms and her whole world turned black.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Someone was talking. No. Some _people_ were talking. And where the _fuck_ was she? Raven tried sitting up, but some wires stopped her from doing so, and she warily lay back down again. She didn't know if she should scream for help, teleport, or pull out the door of the room she was in with her mind. But somehow, she felt safe. Teleporting would just lead her straight back onto the cat-and-mouse game with her executioner, though she was sure that now he would have had already known where she was, and the only people she could 'scream for help' to were the people outside. She strained her ears towards the door.

"Oooh, so naughty little Robin has brought a girl home with him? When did you go party? Why didn't you bring me along?"

"Shut up, BB. She _collapsed_ right on our doorstep."

"Aww, come on… No one can fool the sex god."

"Shut up, BB."

"Introduce me, will you? I'm extremely…sociable."

"Sure. You want an introduction to my foot?"

Silence ensued. The person called BB seemed to know what the person called Robin was capable of when he was annoyed. Raven shifted around in her bed. Who the hell calls himself BB anyway? She tried fitting names, Boring Bitch, Bloated Ball, Big Boy, but they all seemed out of place.

Someone else talked. This time it was a girl. "Friends, do you think she may be in some sort of trouble that she ran all the way here to look for us? Like friend Robin said, she collapsed right on our doorstep."

"Star, you know the meaning of 'collapsed'?" The self-proclaimed sex god asked in a surprised tone. To Raven, BB was now the stupidest person in the group.

"Of course! My English has been improving lately. I have been reading the dictionary. It is so interesting how L follows K and M follows L and N follows M…" Okay, maybe BB wasn't the stupidest.

"Okay thanks Star, but now we have an issue. We have a girl stuck in the room, we don't know where she's from, but one thing for sure is that there is someone chasing her." All-knowing Robin replied.

"Wait. Didn't we call in a new maid recently?" Someone else talked now. Raven wondered how many people were there. He continued, "She was supposed to come tomorrow, uh, I mean today, it's already 2 am in the morning." _Oh. My. Word. Now this person thinks I'm a maid. Maybe BB and Star aren't the stupidest._

"That's a bit impossible, Cyborg. No maid comes running over and fainting at our doorstep at midnight." _Oh, at least there is comfort in knowing that there is a smart Robin in this gigantic T._

"Hey, for all we know she's scared of squirrels," the man called Cyborg said helpfully. "We got animals runnin' all over."

"Maybe it's the ducks. They promised me they will help keep security around the tower." How dumb could this BB get? _Ducks _promised him to keep _security_ around this super big T? She wondered if this tower was an asylum.

Cyborg echoed her thoughts. "How can _ducks_ keep watch around the tower, man? I've got high-tech security all up, we don't need bloody _ducks_."

"Hey don't insult them! They do a much better job in protecting the tower than your machines and they are probably the sexiest creatures you'll ever get."

"How the _fuck_ can they be _sexy?_"

"Friends…"

"DON'T INSULT MY MINIONS!"

"Shut your mouth you stupid green-"

"_Friends_…"

"Did you ever know you are as sexy as a FART?"

"You…."

"Hey both of you cut it out…"

"FRIENDS."

There was immediate silence. Star cleared her throat, and said, "Friends, I think she has awoken."

_Oh. My. Word. _

Before Raven knew it, the door had swung open, and four figures walked in. She recognised Spiky-hair, probably Robin (she really wanted to know why he was wearing a suit that resembled a rainbow, no, more like a traffic light), a girl with long pink hair who had to be Star (she didn't seem to be standing on the ground, she seemed to be floating), a tall black man who seemed to have merged himself with a car, probably Cyborg (the name really fitted him), and a short (though not considered small) _green_ person who looked as human as Star. _What have I gotten myself into?_

Little did Raven Roth know, she was staring at the Teen Titans.

She didn't even know that she was in a place called Jump City.


	2. Meeting the Titans

Raven would have been very thankful if Mr Masked Kidnapper Wanting To Recruit a New Accomplice By Brutal Torture appeared out of thin air suddenly and brought her back to his factory-slash-lab to subject her under real, physical torture. It's not like she had never experienced torture before, considering the fact that she had someone like Trigon for a father. But sitting helplessly on a bed, strapped with wires, and staring straight into the faces of 4 very unusual (not to mention intimidating-looking) people/aliens/machines, was a type of torture that was literally unbearable for Raven. She was indeed capable of teleporting away or throwing something in their faces that would knock them out for 5 minutes, but with them staring at her, she couldn't even seem to move her mouth.

So being the smartest demoness she believed herself to be, Raven just sat there and stared back.

The staring competition lasted for around 10 minutes (it wasn't really much of staring, since Robin was glaring at her, Cyborg was wondering if she came from the same planet as Starfire, BB was imagining her as prey of his very sexy ducks, and Starfire was picturing her with pink hair), before BB opened his mouth out of impatience.

"Um, hi?"

Raven decided saying hi back wouldn't be a very good idea, because she would just have to continue the so-called conversation.

Robin quirked an eyebrow. "You could start by telling us who are you and why the hell did you faint on our doorstep."

"Friend Robin, that was extremely rude of you…"

Raven didn't like this guy. And she thought humans were nice (note the word 'were'). For the first time in her whole life, she was lost for words. She had to find an excuse. Something that would keep her here to escape from her kidnapper, and something that would definitely prevent her from being killed. _What should I say? If I said I was being chased by some weirdo who could inflicted me to brutal torture, they would chase me out and ask me to mind my own business and not bring trouble into their gigantic T. And then what the hell do I do? I can't fight that bastard anyway. _

Something was pressed against her neck. It was cold, like steel, and… _Fuck._ Robin had directed his pole towards her throat, and by the look of it, the pole wasn't there for her to eat. "I suggest you answer me, because you don't look very innocent. If you are just here to stare at us for one whole bloody day, I can happily assume you belong to Slade and dump you in an extremely cold and grey place called jail." _Slade? Who the hell is Slade? And why is he so worked up?_ _Come on Raven, use your poor over-fried brain cells and THINK your way out of this. Think, think, think, think, think, think…_

"I'm the new maid." _Oh my word. That was just plain STUPID. _"I decided to come a bit…earlier because something cropped up."

Robin stared at her disbelievingly (she was quite sure he was even though he had that mask on). There was silence before someone erupted, "BOOYAH! I told you she was the new maid. And no one listened to me! Mr. All-Knowing Sex God, I think that will be 5 bucks."

It was Cyborg. Raven watched as BB angrily handed over a 5-dollar note, muttering, "Meanie… cheating poor innocent hotties like me… stealing my money…I'm so sure the ducks chased her here…" Cyborg grinned, fingering the dollar note and thinking about another day of meat pizza. Apparently, while Robin was busy hording jail threats on Raven, the two behind were betting on her identity. Cyborg insisted that she was the new maid, while BB was adamant that she was a poor runaway on the streets who got chased in by his mighty ducks. In a way, both of them were slightly correct, because firstly, Raven was a runaway in a way that she was running from her crazed kidnapper, and secondly, from now on she would most probably become the new maid so that she could hide herself from the time being.

The problem, however, was the spiky-haired traffic light standing in front of her. She made the clever observation that the pole had not moved an inch from her neck. Starfire was still staring at her worriedly.

"And how do you expect me to believe that? A maid fainting on our doorstep?"

"Look, I was trying to catch the…um…train, alright? I don't…live in this city. So it was damn tiring for me, to run after the train, and I missed it. So here I am, trying to be on time, ending up a bit earlier than expected, and I get threatened?" You know, under this circumstance, Raven was so sure she deserved a prize for her oh-so-brilliant acting.

The pole was lifted by about 1 centimetre. "So you are telling me that you aren't bringing any trouble?"

"No." _Hopefully. But I would like to see this moron get kicked in the ass by that masked idiot._

Another centimetre. "And how am I supposed to be sure of that?"

"How am I supposed to know? Okay I swear I won't bring you guys into trouble, I swear I won't wake up in the middle of the night and assassinate all of you, I swear I won't poison you with deliberately overcooked food, I swear I won't burn this gigantic building down, and if I happen to perform any of these things, I will curse myself by Aza-" She stopped, cursing herself silently for opening her stupid mouth.

Robin's eyebrow rose. "Aza?"

Raven fumbled with her thoughts, fingering her wrist and trying to think of some other smart thing to say. "Uh, yeah, Aza is… You mean you don't know Aza? You know in the show Slow White…"

"I believe it is Snow White."

_Oh. At least it was a good try. _"Uh yeah, I meant Snow White. The witch? She's Aza. I can't believe you don't know her…"

She wanted to kill herself now. She only knew that cartoon by name because she saw a poster of it somewhere and Aza was definitely not a person in that show. However, she couldn't believe how _damn_ _lucky_ she was, because BB piped up, "Oh! I only watched that show once, so I didn't know the witch was called Aza. That's a really cool name! Aza. Aaaazzzzza. Azaar. Beast Boy the Super Sexy Aza."

The tense atmosphere dissipated. Raven heaved a sigh of relief as Robin's pole shifted away. "What's your name?"

"Raven."

"Okay, _Raven_, work starts tomorrow. We don't ask for much. Waking time is indefinite, as long as you wake up at least half an hour before us, and the whole tower must be cleaned everyday. You are expected to cook for us, _every meal._ Clean Cyborg's car too. It stinks. (Cyborg: "Hey!") That should be all." As he turned around, he said dismissively. "Oh. And you will sleep in the hall. The sofa should be soft enough."

Raven didn't know if she should be happy or sad.


	3. Werk

Candidate: Raven Roth

**Candidate: Raven Roth**

**Physical Status: Tired**

**Mental Status: Fucked. Up.**

**Working Status: Attempting to cook up a proper meal of pancakes made of tofu (on Beast Boy's request)**

Raven hadn't slept at all that night, but even though it wasn't supposed to matter that much to a demoness who usually meditates in place of sleeping, the events of the previous day (or rather, hours) had really gotten to her brain. For the first time, her eyes complained that they were too dry and they needed to close urgently (a stupid excuse, she believed), her brain was screaming that it was overworked because it lacked sleep (Liar, she told her brain, you recharge when I meditate, and I meditated for 5 minutes just now), and her limbs felt like rubber.

So basically, nothing was working for her right now.

The soft tofu she had so painstakingly tried to mould into a pancake kept crumbling between her fingers, and her mental state made it such that there seemed to be 2 million pieces of tofu in front of her when there was only one fat piece. She wiped perspiration off her forehead with the back of her hand and continued moulding. She sunk her hand into the bowl of cool gelatine she happened to find in the fridge (it had the words "Property of the OMGHSH sex god OMGHSH- oh my god he's so hot" scrawled on it, so she concluded that it was definitely safe to use for breakfast), and dumped a handful into the tofu. It looked disgusting, but heck, it worked because it made the tofu seem like play dough.

And she would love to see the face of Mr. Steel Rod when he ate it. Maybe she should just let him have it like that, raw.

Then again, the thought of him kicking her out of the Tower gave her a sense of dread. Sighing, she went back to following the recipe that Beast Boy had given her. She added everything with a vengeance.

Sugar: Yeah in you go you stupid powdery looking thing, go choke that traffic light. Let him die of diabetes. Mwahaha.

Flour: You look like sugar. Whatever. Never mind, I'll put lots of you in so you can make that stupid man get FAT. How would he like it huh?

Butter: Oooh. You look yellow. Like puke. Okay dangerous-looking enough for me. Lots of you too. Promise me you'll make him puke. You could work with Tofu, it looks a bit like you.

Just as she was finding enjoyment in dumping the ingredients in and fantasizing about Robin exploding into little chunks of flesh, she heard a cold voice behind her. "What are you doing?"

She jumped. Turning around, she found herself face to face with the very person she had been dreaming of poisoning with her food, and all the merry thoughts of killing him vanished without a trace. She glanced over his shoulder at the clock behind him. It was only 4 am. Humans only slept for 2 hours a day? She opened her mouth and then closed it, not really knowing what to say. Maybe "good morning how was your night? I mean your dawn?" or "why don't you sit down while I prepare a nice breakfast to fill you up before you go do whatever you actually do?" would suffice. Still, they all sounded wrong to her and anyway, she didn't really have the thing called manners the humans had. So, after careful thought, she came out with the best thing to say that would definitely satisfy both parties.

"Er."

She could _swear _those eyes behind the mask were shooting daggers at her. She thought she felt one of them stab her in the heart. "Somehow I really doubt your culinary skills," he commented, peering over her shoulder at the mess she had made of the table. _Oh god._ Being a maid had been a lot more difficult than she had imagined it to be. "Maybe you would like to tell the truth now? Now that there's just the two of us here?" he sneered, coming dangerously close to Raven's face. "You seem as maid-ish to me as Beast Boy does. I would like to know why Slade sent you, and what the hell you plan to do to us by pretending to be a _maid._ What did you do to the real one? Huh?"

She realised she was being backed up against the wall. "Er." Her second word for the day. Wow, this was going great. Maybe if I keep on saying "er", he would think of me as a mute too stupid to be a threat.

"Don't give me that bullshit, _Ms. Raven_."

Raven gave him the coldest look she could muster. She was a demoness, for goodness sake! Being frightened of a mere human, a mere _mortal_…

She shut her eyes. Her powers were taking control of her. She could feel herself lose control of them, panic rising up within her to take control of her body… She needed to meditate…_now_… think of berries and squirrels… berries and squirrels…. Snow White… _DAMMIT…_

"Robin! What the hell!?"

She could feel the feel of the steel rod against her neck suddenly disappear, and opening her eyes cautiously, she could see the machine man –what'shisname, oh yeah, Cyborg- restraining Robin, or more like grabbing his shoulders while Robin stood there and glared at her. His glare could beat hers anytime.

"Think about it. You could leave anytime you want." Robin said quietly, turning away. "The door's on that side."

Cyborg sighed, watching the metallic doors slide shut behind Robin as he stalked out of the hall. He gave her a weak smile. "He's like that sometimes, you know. Suspicious of everyone. Careful of everyone. Ever since Terra, he doesn't think he can trust anyone besides us anymore. Somehow he believes Slade is everywhere in his life so all 'foreigners' to this tower are Slade's cronies. You don't look very... uh… normal, so obviously to him you are the number one suspect."

"Yeah, and if I were you, I would be really _really _careful when I'm sleeping. Because Robin's got power, you know, he has cyanide in his birdarangs and explosives in his metal rod, and he used to train in this assassin school when he was 8, and I bet he actually kills many bad guys in Jump City at night, but he won't tell us, I only found out when I turned into a bat and followed him…"

"Shut up, BB. Where did you come from?"

"Oh, since Robin was doing his 'you are as gloriously effective as a maid as Beast Boy, because he is absolutely the best, he washes the dishes until they sparkle, and he makes the best tofu ever'…"

"I didn't hear that. Which basically means you were there before me but you did not do anything to help Raven."

"But there's nothing wrong with that! A little lovers' chat can't go wrong anywhere could it? And there were so _close _to…"

"No! It was nothing like that!" Raven waved her hands desperately, but Cyborg gave her a reassuring smile. Without warning, he whirled around and punched BB hard in the stomach. With an 'oof' sound, BB crashed into the wall, and immediately transformed into a green duck, crumpling onto the floor. Raven stared at the green bird, mouth agape, and repeatedly told herself that no, the little green boy that used to be standing next to her 1 minute ago was _not_ a duck, nope, he definitely did not shrink so fast and grow webbed feet and a rounded beak, because hey, where was the logic in that anyway? A demoness is ruled by logic. Logic makes the world go round. She did not believe it, so it did _not_ happen…

A cup exploded and fell to the floor in pieces.

Cyborg raised an eyebrow at the cup, then looked at her questioningly. Oh no. It was the Look. Was this some sort of talent both Robin and him had? She smiled weakly. "I dropped it. I'll mend it!" she said hurriedly, stooping to pick up the pieces. She fought the urge to just pick it up with her mind.

She felt so relieved when Cyborg laughed. "Surprised by BB, huh. What do you expect from an idiot with an idiotic name like Beast Boy?"

Raven stared at him, then back at the changeling, who had now transformed into a chicken. "So he… actually _changes _into animals?"

_Werk_, said the chicken.

"Yeah, that's basically it. Nothing to be frightened of. Honestly, I think his power sucks."

_WERK WERK,_ came the disapproving reply from the chicken.

"Oh. I see." Nothing to be frightened of!? She thought these people were humans! Did she actually come to the right planet?

"Yeah. He's bloody annoying sometimes. You've got to be careful of him. I'm saying this because since you would be cleaning the dishes. In his 'today-I'm-an-asshole' days or 'oh-today-Cyborg's-doing-dishes-so…heh-heh' days he turns into a chicken and shits all over the dishes so the one washing them has to do more work and smell chicken shit. I'm saying this from experience."

_Werk,_ the chicken protested, but it seemed to look a bit guilty. It had somehow suspiciously made its way onto the table where the sink and the tofu were. It was now giving them the I'm-just-standing-at-the-sink-there's-nothing-wrong-with-that-I-wasn't-planning-to-do-anything-anyway-at-least-for-now look as it absent mindedly poked the pile of tofu with its right wing.

"Don't do it, BB." Cyborg warned.

The chicken managed to give a sly look and inch closer to the dishes.

"The bastard wants me to plead with him," Cyborg muttered. The chicken hearing itself being called 'bastard', gave a defiant _werk_ and jumped even closer, until it was balancing on the edge of the sink. Cyborg inched closer, and reluctantly said, "Okay, please, all knowing sex god."

The chicken remained there.

"Master of Ducks and All Other Related Animals Possible on Planet Earth, Overlord of the Animal Kingdom, King of Green Changelings?"

The chicken still remained where it was.

Cyborg seemed to struggle with himself for a moment, then finally sighed in resignation and said, "Master of Cyborg."

With a happy _werk,_ the chicken bounced off the table… and into Cyborg's outstretched hands.

Uh oh, Raven thought.

With a loud "Booyah!", Cyborg closed his metallic wrist over BB's neck, shaking him until he turned into a snake, a duck, a squirrel, a chinchilla, a rabbit, then back to his real form. "Quit it! Quit it!" the changeling squealed, gasping for breath. Raven watched helplessly as Cyborg continued strangling BB until he was satisfied, and BB collapsed into a heap on the floor. Thankfully, he was too weak to change into any other sort of animal. The transformation was terrifying and painful to watch.

Cyborg smiled and turned back to Raven, literally showing no signs of his previous ferocity. "That's the only way to deal with him," he explained, kicking the green heap on the floor. Raven felt a flash of pity for BB, but being a demoness who simply felt that she did not have time to worry for anyone else other than herself, she quickly went back to her normal state.

She was curious about one thing though. "So BB can turn into an animal, and what about the rest of you?"

Cyborg scratched his nose. "Oh uh, we have different abilities, though some are not really supernatural like the piece of green shit here. I'm, uh, more or less human, I shoot sonic cannons. Yeah, they're pretty nice things." He aimed his cannon arm at the ceiling and fired a hole through the wall. There was a shocked female shriek, which Raven concluded was Starfire's, because she seemed to be the only female among the four of them.

Cyborg laughed. "I'll fix that soon. I built this house, so I should have it done in around 5 minutes. Anyway, Starfire up there uses green starbolts that are pretty nasty - yeah, she burned me before- and she can fly. So can BB, if you think about it. Robin, well, he's the most human among us. He uses weird weapons that _cut,_ I tell you. He's the leader too, since he is the only one with a full human mind which can think logically and not be stupid. Starfire's not really good at English and still can't differentiate between a fork and a spoon, I've got half a computer brain that could spoil quite easily if I lose battery, and BB literally does not have a brain." There was a weak defiant 'hey' from the green heap. Raven realized BB was just refusing to get up.

She grappled with the thought of Robin being the leader. It spelled trouble, somehow. She had already pissed off the leader, and it was quite likely he would try to get her out of the tower. And she could not let that happen.

"Thank you," she said politely, and turned around to finish shaping up the tofu and put them in the oven. Cyborg was dragging BB off by the collar.

The life of a maid would need some getting used to.


	4. Duck Research

The breakfast, Raven realised, didn't prove to be that much of a disaster, according to the Titans' taste. Or so she assumed. Apart from the fact that Robin was glaring at her the whole time as she stood behind the counter (he didn't even touch his plate, _damn him)_ and Cyborg told her apologetically that he needed to go and vomit out some of his metal parts, the others didn't seem to mind the crap she had made. For one thing, Starfire was capable of making it look like the gelatine mush was a type of exotic dessert, and Beast Boy told her to cook the same thing for the whole of the next month, though this didn't go down very well with the metalman and the traffic light. Well, at least 50 percent of them gave their approval. That was enough for her.

As she cleared the plates and washed them absently in the sink, Raven's mind started to wander. The masked man kept appearing in her head now and then, and as she looked back at the Titans, she wondered whether he knew where she was. Maybe he was already starting to track her down. Maybe they were under him. Hopefully, he was non-existent and just a part of her imagination. Hopefully, this whole Titan thing was just some horrible nightmare. She pinched herself, then winced. Okay, so this wasn't some dream. But still, these people seemed too incredible to be true.

She looked back. Cyborg and Beast Boy had engaged themselves in a verbal war, Starfire was picking her nails, and Robin was staring at the table forlornly. At least he wasn't glaring at her. He was _always _glaring at her. What was his problem? She wasn't going to bring what's-his-name to his tower. And she was going to leave soon anyway. That was it. Tomorrow she would leave, and teleport out of this hellhole, and… and… find some way to survive. It was embarrassing to be running away from a human. She would escape tomorrow.

Just as she was about to get the next plate, the whole tower seemed to turn red out of a sudden, and an alarm blared, piercing Raven's eardrums. The sudden loss of concentration took its toll on the plate she was holding with her mind under the running water, and it broke into two clean halves. She swore, but then realised that no one had heard her or her accident. At the alarm, the Titans had shot up from their seats and suddenly started brandishing all sorts of weird things from their outfits. They all seemed to take out one palm sized communicator each. She didn't know where in the name of Azarath did Robin manage to pull out his body-long staff, or where Cyborg actually managed to get a gargantuan cannon from his… body. Oh wait. That gun used to be his hand. Where did his hand go?

Before she could say anything, Robin barked, "Titans, go!" And apart from Starfire, who flew, all of them leapt over the table or chair, then over the sofa, then over all sorts of random things in their way, and finally dashed out the doorway. She wondered why couldn't they just walk _around_ all these things and out the door. Jumping over all these things weren't really necessary. From where she was, she could hear Robin shouting again. "It's a distance away. BB, Cy, we'll take the car. Star, you get there before us and stall it!" With the sound of slamming car doors and an engine, they were gone.

Raven then managed to find her wits, and she ran out too (without jumping over things). The car was surprisingly fast, considering the fact that it was now a fast-disappearing dot in the distance when it just left 3 seconds ago.

Who the hell were these people?

Raven walked back into the large tower, trying not to think of the absurdity of everything she was going through. Time to clean the windows.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

They were welcomed by the unpleasant sight of Plasmus trying to swallow up a building in one whole, ignoring the screaming people inside who were trying frantically to get out. Which was a stupid idea, Robin thought. Jumping out would spell death, because they were either going to fall onto hard fast concrete, or they were going to be digested by Plasmus. "Save the people," he instructed Starfire and BB, and with a nod they were gone, Starfire flying towards an idiot dangling by one arm on one of the highest floors, and BB morphing quickly into a pterodactylus and following her.

"Take him down," Robin yelled to Cyborg, as he himself charged towards the writhing creature. With a small grunt, Robin stuck his pole hard onto the ground and vaulted himself onto the Plasmus. Stupid move. Even though he was a brilliant pole vaulter, there was no way that he was going to be able to reach the monster's head. Landing on Plasmus' chest, Robin swore as he gripped a large fistful of slime but still slid downwards towards Plasmus' stomach. A sky blue cannon shot blasted into Plasmus' chest near where Robin dangled, and he shot a glare at Cyborg, who smiled sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders, his arm-turned-gun still smoking from the shot.

Plasmus turned to see who it was that attacked him, and dropped the building that he was holding because his little brain didn't really understand the meaning of multitasking. He growled at Cyborg, and Robin heard Cyborg start to say, "Fu-" before a large ball of purple slime was hurled at him, knocking him off his feet. Robin let go of the slimy chest he was holding, and cursed as he hit a large pool of slime below. Only managing to shake free of the muddy liquid, he whipped out 2 birdarangs and threw them at Plasmus' eyes. Only a lousy distraction, he knew, but good enough to piss the monster off and bring its attention away from Cyborg. Plasmus screamed and flailed about, 3 of his punctured eyes oozing green radioactive liquid, and advanced towards Robin.

Starfire and BB arrived then, having finished saving those people and giving them the common "yes we are here to save you no we aren't little aliens who want to exterminate you can you please follow that nice policeman over there and get yourselves to safety it's really dangerous here no we aren't free to give autographs right now DON'T TOUCH MY COMMUNICATOR NO NO DON'T PRESS THAT BUTTON yes thank you very much don't mention it we are just doing what we can for society okay stop talking to me it's dangerous here see you next time" replies. Robin gave a little relieved smirk as Starfire threw well-aimed starbolts at the monster and BB turned into a bird and started pecking at Plasmus' eyes, again distracting him. He ran over to Cyborg. "You okay?" he asked, helping the metalman up. Cyborg gave a little groan in reply, and nodded.

"You are going to have to throw me up," Robin said, tucking his communicator into his pocket. Cyborg looked at him uncertainly, but gave a reluctant nod. Robin stepped onto his huge arm, and with a mighty heave from Cyborg, Robin felt himself hurtle through the air towards Plasmus' head. Thank god for super-strong Cyborg. Extending his pole onto Plasmus' shoulder, Robin landed, and started throwing birdarangs at its eyes again. Running quickly so that he wouldn't sink through the slime, Robin swung his pole towards Plasmus' head, and punctured as many eyes as he could find, ducking the large purple hands flailing at him.

"Get down from there!" Cyborg yelled, and understanding what he was going to do, Robin leaped off the giant shoulder. BB and Starfire had been hit, so there was no one to take him down without a bruise. He cursed, and landed on his shoulder into the slime. The slime did cushion his fall, but a sharp pain shot down his arm, and his leg stung. Wiping sweat from his eyes, he limped away from the monstrous being. Cyborg aimed carefully at the monster, then shot a large cannon blast at its eyes. Its head exploded into a mixture of purple and green, and instead of healing itself, it started to shrink.

BB and Starfire came up to his side, watching calmly as the monster became a sleeping naked human lying on the floor. "That was fast," BB commented, still wiping slime off his arm. As they ran forward to get the body, a shape darted in front of them. Before they could react, the body disappeared, taken away by the mysterious shape. "Slade," Robin snarled, and threw his pole onto the floor in anger.

"Need. Pizza. For. Stomach. Now." BB said, pointing at his stomach. "Flying takes all my adenosine triphosphate away."

Robin stopped glaring at where the body used to be and raised an eyebrow. "And when did you know what ATP was anyway?"

"Since forever, duh."

"Maybe more like since you started snooping around my room and looking at biology books."

"You lie! Why would I sneak into your room for? You don't even have a pet duck, or for that matter a pet cockroach or something."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I did! I said I knew what adenosine triphosphate was since forever!"

"Oh. Hate to burst your bubble, kid, but you didn't use ATP in the right context."

"I don't have a bubble, tell me when did I have a – "

"Which part of a cell synthesises ATP?"

"I said I don't have a – "

"Which part?"

"I don't like bubbles, my ducks say that don't like bub – "

"_Which part?"_

"Okay, okay, some purple thing, called a mito-something…"

"Back to the first question. When did you know what ATP was?"

"Since forev – "

"When?"

"Okay, okay, last year, my teacher told me…"

"You don't go to school. When?"

"Fine, Cyborg told me that beginning of this year."

"I didn't teach you nuthin'." Cyborg added helpfully.

"When, BB?"

"Starfire…"

"She doesn't know anything. When?"

"Mmmppph." BB mumbled.

"What?"

"Yeestemphhs."

"My fist is at your face, BB."

"Fine! Yesterday in your room! Happy?"

"Any why were you there?"

"I was trying to find some books about ducks, and I was hoping I would find something about them there!"

"You went into my room for ducks."

"Fucking ducks," Cyborg murmured.

"Don't use that tone with me and my ducks!"

"You step into my room again, and I'll kick your butt if Slade doesn't do it by then. You hear me?"

"Y-y-yes. Would you help me with the duck research then?"

"No."

The Titans headed back for the car. Pizza was a 5 minute drive away. And a 30 second flight for Starfire.


	5. Figure You Out

It had been a good 3 hours since they left. Raven glanced at the clock again. Nope, she wasn't wrong. It was 3 hours, no more, no less. She had finished most of the household chores in 1 hour, since her powers made it convenient for her to wipe the grit off the windows, and find all the rotting rubbish lying beneath the sofa and the TV. She had packed a cupboard filled with PlayStation games according to chronological order. She had washed the dishes (those she hadn't broken) and arranged them in a neat pile in the cupboard above the sink. Now she needed to go into their rooms and get their clothes for wash.

No one had been kind or smart enough to give her a tour of the tower. She knew that the rooms were probably beyond the automatic doors, but once she got there she had entered a dark corridor. She didn't know where the doors were. So she wandered around, making random turns along the confusing corridors, but the doors were nowhere to be seen. Sighing, she made a mental note to ask them where their rooms were. Just as she was about to make another turn, she heard the faint sound of a car driving into the garage. Panicking, she quickly teleported herself back to the main hall.

She was lucky. They came in one by one right after she managed to grab a cup and wipe it absently. BB was the first, his face covered in a strange purple substance, Cyborg and Star followed, Cyborg's gun still smoking and Star floating a little more droopily than before, and Robin was the last to enter. He seemed the most bruised of them all, and Raven's sadistic side smiled inwardly. Furthermore, he seemed to be limping quite badly, and with a little strain she managed to see a large blot of red on his green leggings. He didn't seem too concerned about it though, and managed to make his limp look something like a normal walk. Raven found it surprising that his mask still managed to stay fixed in the same position on his face, and his face betrayed no emotion. All of them plonked themselves down on the sofa.

"Um, what exactly happened?" Raven asked, gesturing at the injured Robin and the exhausted Cyborg who had joined him on the sofa. Robin didn't reply, obviously ignoring her, but Cyborg answered with a weak smile on his face. "Attack on Jump City," he explained in 4 words. Raven nodded as if she actually understood, then automatically filled up the cup she was holding with cold water and offered it to Starfire. Much to her surprise, Starfire rejected it. "Thank you very much for your kind intentions, maid Raven, but I am quite full with drink already. I had a curious greenish drink called soda at the pizza place."

Raven stared at her, mouth agape. There was an attack at Jump City, then they went to a pizza place? What was going on?

Cyborg seemed to understand her thoughts. "Hey, don't need to look all confused. This is what we do. We protect Jump City."

"Er."

"Seriously. We are called the Teen Titans, because we are teens and yeah we fight. This place, it's not as safe as any other city out there. Because we have this group of asshol- I mean, bad guys, who go all out to ruin the peace here. They are led by this guy called – "

"No need to tell her everything," Robin interrupted. "She probably knows it already. She's one of Slade's people."

"Quit it, Robin. If she was Slade's crony, she probably would have sent Jinx and friends to ruin our tower and ambush us when we came back."

"Doesn't mean she isn't one of them."

"Doesn't mean she _is _one of them."

They glared at each other. Starfire, sensing the awkward moment, gave a pathetic laugh as if she had seen something funny and told BB loudly, "Oh dear, you look like a flaming green gornax, dear friend Beast Boy!"

BB played along, but not very well. "I do? Yeah, I do! Haha! Haha!"

There was silence, then BB muttered to Starfire, "What's a gornax?"

"You know what? To hell with all this suspicious shit. I'm gonna recharge," Cyborg said exasperatedly, throwing his large arms into the air. He got up and thumped through the automatic doors to his room. Raven watched him leave, and sensing the awkward moment she had created, she attempted to fade into the background.

No such luck. BB and Starfire made their way back to their rooms soon after, and that left her alone with the leader, who was still sitting on the sofa, arms folded. She tried to pretend he wasn't there, but his presence was just so commanding.

"When are you leaving?" Raven didn't realised he had spoken, because his mouth didn't seem to move, but she recognised that voice well enough.

"Um, I was thinking maybe tomor – "

"I'll give you 5 minutes."

Before Raven could reply, he had gotten up and started to limp towards the doors. The red spot on his leggings had gotten horribly large, and his left arm seemed to hang uselessly at his side. His right hand still gripped the pole tightly as if he was going to use it, and his face was simply… menacing. She knew then that she didn't have a choice. It was back to the outside world for her.

She was going to wait for him to leave before she made her secret departure, but before she could say anything, he stopped and wavered where he stood. Sensing something wrong, she quickly teleported to his side and caught him as he fell towards the ground. He was heavier than she thought he would be, and she managed to bring him down to the ground gently with a grunt of effort. Even with his mask on, Raven could tell that he had lost consciousness altogether. His angry features had relaxed into a calm expression, and Raven realised that he had really well-defined cheekbones and a well-contoured face… She stopped herself. This wasn't a demoness thing to do at all. Demonesses don't look at humans' faces. Demonesses don't avoid humans because they are scared of them. Demonesses don't _save _humans.

But now, her demoness side decided to take a break and allow her good Samaritan side to emerge, and without thinking she teleported herself and Robin to the room she was kept in on her first day. Putting him onto the bed as gently as she could, Raven pressed her lips firmly together in concentration as she placed her right palm on his chest, where the 'R' sign was. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she breathed, and pale blue light enveloped her hand, and she watched calmly as Robin's body absorbed it. She closed her eyes and analysed Robin's injury. A dislocation of the left shoulder, a deep cut stretching from his right knee down to his ankle, and multiple bruises and scrapes on his arms and his chest. _What, he single-handedly took on a giant?_ , she thought wryly, shaking her head at the extent of his injury. How did a normal human actually withstand all that and pretend his injury was nothing?

When she opened her eyes again, the pale blue light had faded. She tested his left arm by moving it up and down experimentally, and smiled in satisfaction when it seemed to be in the right place. The open cut on his knee had closed and dried up as well, and she felt a large scab where the open wound used to be. His fingers twitched slightly. Raven stood up and prepared to leave, but she felt him grasp her wrist in a firm grip. She whirled around in shock, and watched in horror as he sat up. She realised that because of his mask, she didn't see his eyes open. In fact, they had been open in the midst of the healing.

They stared at each other for a long time. "Who are you?" he croaked.

Raven didn't know how to respond. She was forcing herself to meditate inside, but it wasn't working. She could feel Robin's eyes boring into her, and she flinched. "Raven Roth," she answered monotonously, trying to pretend as if nothing demon-ish about her had been noticed by a human.

"Cut the crap," Robin replied. "What are you?"

"I'm not Slade's, if that's what you are wondering."

"I find that hard to believe."

Raven threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "Of course you don't! You never have! On my first day, you point something at me and accuse me of being someone's evil associate. On my fourth day, you chase me out because somehow I'm probably related to whoever you were fighting just now. So why should you believe me now? Hate to burst your bubble here, _Robin_, but I don't have a _fucking_ idea who Slade is, or what he wants."

In her angry ravings, she didn't realise that she had caused the innocent dustbin to explode. None of them noticed that though.

Robin sounded strangely calm. "I've been trying to figure you out for days. You are a – I don't know- witch, who comes to the Tower, claims to be a maid, and denies who Slade is. But you can't possibly be on the human's side, because you aren't human."

"So sue me."

"Don't really want to."

"Now what? I've just proved myself to be a demoness, so what are you going to do about it? I can leave now."

"Don't need to."

"So what, I'm permanently a maid?"

"Until I figure you out, yes."

"Why the sudden approval?"

"If you are with Slade, then I can keep an eye on you. If you are not, well…" he looked around the clean room (which Raven had cleaned because she had nothing better to do). "you sure make a hell of a maid."

Robin jumped off the bed, and walked out of the room without another word. Raven stood rooted to the spot, and followed him. Staying for a while wouldn't hurt.

Anyway, it shouldn't take him a long time to figure her out.

She was just a demoness. That was all there was to it.


	6. Clothes, clothes, clothes

"La la la la, la la la la, Elmo's world.... La la la la, la la la la, Elmo's world…"

Raven resisted the urge to break that annoying handphone into two. She could easily guess that it was Beast Boy's, though she didn't really know how she knew.

But seriously, it didn't take a smart ass to know what stuff actually belonged to BB.

From his handphone to his socks, BB's things were always different. Raven was so used to packing his stuff most of the time (he created the most mess, Robin came in a close second), that she could easily identify his belongings. She credited it to the few weeks she had spent during nothing but chores in the Tower, and also the craziness of whatever BB owned.

For example, BB owned a milk bottle. He had once explained to Raven that it was a tribute to the hardworking cows who spent all their hardworking lives being hardworking. He talked about their contributions to the world, of how they ate evil people-eating weeds and grass, of how they provided milk for the multiple generations of homo sapiens, of how they brought in the new fashion of piercing a ring through the nose or ear, of how they used to rule the land and protect the humans from the fearsome aliens from a planet called Shit, and how humans had cruelly repaid them with the consumption of steak. What Raven viewed the conversation as was something like this.

"The cows! They slog so hard for us… yadda yadda…."  
_I haven't cleaned Starfire's room yet. _

"They kill those evil monster green things that disguise themselves as grass… yadda yadda…"

_Oh shit, did I mend that hole in the wall?_

"They are AWESOME. They have new fashion trends… yadda yadda… nose rings….ear piercings… yadda…"

_Clothes. Clothes. CLOTHES. Have I washed Robin's shirt?_

"How can anyone bear to eat them? I mean, only Cyborg does… yadda… evil cow-eating machineman… yadda…"

_I need to meditate later. When are they going to go fight? When is this guy going to stop talking to me?_

"Like yeah! We should totally… yadda yadda…. Yaddayaddayaddayadda Don't you think so?"

BB had gone silent. Raven looked up to find him looking at her expectantly. She fumbled with the cloth she was holding, and tried to sound excited. "Uh, yeah, great, awesome, makes a lot of sense."

"YES! I knew it! You totally agree with me!" BB looked triumphant.

"Uh, yeah. That's a great idea." _What was he talking about anyway?_

"Of course! I totally know how to make the right decisions!"

"Mmhmm, yup. Unbeatable." _Where's that plate I was cleaning? Did I keep it?_

"Alright!" BB punched his fist into the air. "I shall go and announce my decision for the team since you seconded me! From today onwards, we will all go vegan!"

"Yeah, alrig – Wait what?"

"You heard me! We are all going VEGAN!"

"No wait – " Raven said desperately.

It was too late. BB had started singing some song about vegetables as he disappeared through the automatic doors. Shit. She was in so much trouble. Being able to stay here was a privilege in itself, and if BB actually suggested to Robin that Raven had supported the idea of vegan Titans, Robin would probably kick her out again.

Now, that wasn't an idea she really liked. She really didn't like it at all.

Raven sighed and glanced at the clock behind her. She grabbed the basket at her feet and carried it through the automatic doors, Elmo's song fading away as the doors closed behind her. It was a pity she couldn't use her powers freely because only Robin knew of it, and he didn't seem to want to let the others know anytime soon.

She walked along silently down the corridors, making familiar turns until she reached the line of doors. She knocked on every door thrice (under Robin's strict orders), and when there was no reply, she moved on to the next. They had to be sleeping, even at this time of the day. Since they fought everyday, she could understand why everyone overslept. But for Robin… he was a different matter. _He_ didn't seem to sleep. _He _seemed to worry about anything and everything. _He_ hated her and picked on her. _He_ was an _asshole. _

She hesitated as she reached his door. She knocked on the door tentatively, half-hoping that he too was sleeping, and that he didn't hear her.

However, as it always went with Robin, Raven shouldn't have placed her hopes too high. She could hear the two muffled words "come in" through the thick doors, and the doors hissed open. Sighing, she bent down to pick up the huge basket and tucking it under one arm, she walked into the room.

And stopped. Robin was standing next to his bed, his hair messed up as if he had just gotten out of the bed, and he was _topless._

Okay, this was just plain _weird._

Not that Robin didn't have muscles or anything – in fact he had a well-toned six pack, Raven tried not to note – but this was so…

Raven's brain fumbled for words.

Awkward. Yes, awkward was the best word.

He didn't seem to care about her, and he continued to walk around the room, opening cupboards and drawers (and leaving them open) as if he was looking for something. Raven stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, trying not to get in his way, but always seemed to succeed in bumping into him. When she did, Robin just turned the other way irritably or walked around her, like he had just walked straight into an invisible barrier.

Raven felt like she didn't exist anymore. She was being _ignored._

Well, at least it was better this way. She carefully made her way through the mess Robin had made of the room (she wasn't allowed to pack their room, with the exception of bringing their clothes down for wash), trying not to tread on the birdarangs that were lying around randomly on the floor. She didn't really believe BB when he said that those things had cyanide, but she didn't want to take any risks.

Raven bent down and started picking up clothes strewn all over the place. There was a T-shirt hanging on the side of the bed, still with the faint smell of Robin's sweat on it, a pair of washed out jeans that was thrown carelessly onto the floor, about 6 pairs of ankle socks, and about 20 towels. Robin had said that the undergarments would be taken care of by the titans themselves, much to Raven's relief.

When she was finally done with the clothes, Raven heaved the heavy basket with both arms and tried not to fumble as she staggered out. Damn Robin and his law about 'no funny black supernatural thing in the tower'. He was probably smirking at her, laughing sadistically to himself about how dumb she actually looked with a heap of clothes, and taking a photo of her so that he could display it on the internet and shame her publicly.

Okay, maybe she was over imagining things.

Wait. Where in the name of Azarath was he?

Because of the mountain of clothes she was carrying, Raven she didn't see the guy bend down in front of her to pick up a newspaper clipping thrown on the floor. She didn't see him blocking her pathway.

And she certainly didn't see the shocked look he had on his face when she tripped on his leg and fell right on top of him.

_FUCK. _


	7. Fan Mail

Okay, this sucked. For all the problems Raven had faced in her lifetime, nothing was as bad as _this._ The fact that she had dropped a whole load of clothes on the floor wasn't what bothered her the most, but instead the fact that she had buried the masked leader somewhere in there.

And she was certainly _not _going to take a look at Robin's face.

Carefully, she climbed off the pile and sheepishly removed the clothing one item after another, wincing slightly as an arm emerged, followed by the rest of Robin. Averting her eyes from the leader, she muttered something along the lines of "I'm sorry it was carelessness on my part and I didn't expect you to walk out of your room so fast so I wasn't really paying attention to what was in front of me and so you know the rest" and heaving the basket up with both arms, she attempted to fade into the dark walls, shutting her eyes as she awaited the dreaded punishment…

…Which never came. All Robin did was pick up the newspaper clipping he had dropped, and he walked past her as if she was just a misplaced pillar in the hallway.

Okay, now she felt pathetic.

_What were you scared of? He's nothing compared to Trigon. He's not even a tenth of Trigon's height. He's just a fashion terrorist with a messy haircut. You are a demoness. You eat guys like him for breakfast. He should be peeing in his green tights and running home to his mother at the sight of you. What's gone wrong with you? You are a pure disgrace to the demon race. Congratulations Raven, you have succeeded in being the first demon to receive The Most Pathetic Demon Award. _

Furious with herself, Raven used her mind to levitate the basket of clothes in front of her as she travelled down the empty hallway. Damn Robin and his stupid rule of no magic in the tower. _She_ was a demoness, so she had every damn right to use her magic when she damn well felt like it.

Well, as long as no one else saw her doing it.

As Raven made her way through the large metal doors leading to the hallway, the doorbell (which was set to mimic the sound of a ringing telephone by Cyborg for reasons Raven never comprehended why) rang and immediately a blur of silver and green zipped past Raven, nearly throwing her hood off. Raven sighed. Her tenure at the Tower had taught her that she was to expect something new and unpredictable from the Titans every subsequent day, and so she mastered the ability of not breaking something near her with her mind when something like this happened. _All of this is just normal, Raven. Just normal. _

"FAN MAIL!" BB and Cyborg screeched as they jumped over the random things in the hall (a strangely familiar Titan habit, Raven mused) to get to the main door. As Cyborg went out to get the mail, BB turned into a little green puppy and waited at the door, wagging his tail in excitement. Raven groaned. She hated it when he transformed. Was he _ever _satisfied with his humanoid form?

Cyborg returned with an armful of envelopes, dumping them onto the floor as BB rushed forward, digging through the mail as if he was looking for a treasure chest. As both of them started to pick out envelopes one after another, Raven heard the metal doors swoosh open again and in flew Starfire, dragging an obviously reluctant Robin by the arm.

"Come friend Robin! It is time for the collecting of the mail given by our dearest fans!"

"I told you I'm not in the least bit interested, Star. Let me go back and…"

"_No, friend Robin."_ Raven flinched. Starfire was giving Robin a glare Raven thought the chirpy alien would never be capable of. Did the temperature of the room just drop by 10 degrees?

The rest of the Titans seemed to quieten down at the same time. Raven realised Cyborg had reached her side. "Don't worry 'bout Star. Reading fan mail is one of her most important hobbies," he whispered. Raven pretended to nod her head as if she understood. She could swear that there were streaks of lightning flashing between Robin and Star. If no one was going to stop them, there would be a full blown war. And she would have to clean up after that.

And she was not going to let that happen. She still had a pile of laundry to do.

"OH," she said loudly. "SO WHAT IS ALL THIS FAN MAIL ABOUT?" Okay, not a very good idea. She could feel Clever Raven beating Stupid Raven up inside her head.

Luckily for her, Starfire was the first to respond. The happy smile immediately returned to her face, and turning away from Robin she glided towards Raven at an unimaginable speed. "Oh friend Raven, it's a joyous celebration! Every week we gather together to celebrate the collecting and the reading of the fan letters! We…"

"Read them to boost our egos, yup." Cyborg cut in helpfully. "Fans tell us how much they appreciate us and love us and how they will support us all the way and how they buy posters with us on it to paste on their walls. It's a pity we don't earn any commission from having our faces illegally printed on all types of merchandise. The last time we visited a supermart, we found BB's face printed on a pair of briefs in the kids section."

There was a moment of silence. "You didn't have to tell her that, Cy." BB whined in a hurt voice. Raven frantically tried to push away the image of BB's wide grin on men's underwear from her mind. It was much too disturbing.

"Oh friends! I have found so many letters for me today! Here's 14… 15… 16… 17…. 18…. um… 15… 14… 16… 18… 15… Oh I am so jumbled up, dear Robin would you help me?"

"You have 23 letters, Star."

"Twenty-three? There is such a curious number in the system of the numbers?" Star exclaimed, staring at her letters like she had just made a groundbreaking discovery. She was largely ignored.

"YES I HAVE 28 LETTERS! 28 LETTERS FOR THE ALL-KNOWING SEX GOD!"

"BOOYAH! I have 29. That's 10 bucks, all-knowing sex god."

BB went into a corner and started to repeat his monologue of how all-knowing sex gods like him were always being cheated by ugly robot people.

Raven stared at what remained of the pile of letters. It was a _fucking mountain_. Whatever the other Titans had taken away from it seemed to have literally no effect on the size of the mountain. Her eyes slowly moved towards the motionless traffic light lounging on the couch. That could only mean…

"Looks like the rest is yours, Rob. Seems like you got less, huh?" Cyborg laughed, gathering Robin's mail in an armful and throwing it at the leader. Raven watched as the leader was instantly buried. What a strangely nostalgic sight.

"I don't want them." Robin muttered from underneath the pile. Getting up from the mess, Raven watched as he walked calmly out of the hallway. Cyborg raised an eyebrow, then sighed. "He's always like that, huh. Has never even opened one of his fan letters since we started receiving them. No idea what it is he has against his fans." Sighing, he muttered something about "Slade fucking up his brain again" before picking up his stack of mail and trudging out of the hall, followed by the rest of the Titans.

It was that name again. _Slade?_ Raven absently picked at the pile of mail Robin had left on the floor, digging through her memories in an attempt to remember where she had heard it from. Oh, right. The guy Robin had initially (and probably still did for all she knew) believed was controlling her. Raven frowned. Had working at the Tower for such a long period of time already eroded her memories of her first few days here? It was near to impossible. Demonesses were universally known for their photographic memories, a notable reason why they were so capable of holding life-long grudges against someone who offended them sometime in their lives. _What a pathetic race we are,_ Raven thought wryly. _I mean, look at Trigon. The bastard holds so many fucking grudges, he will only be satisfied the minute he manages to blow up Azarath, Earth and all the other fucking planets in this fucking universe._

Calming herself down, Raven took a careful look at the pile. It seemed… inviting. Strangely, she wanted to know who exactly would write to Robin, and what it was they saw in him that actually credited him so much fan mail. It was nearly impossible to imagine Robin being an idol, because to her he was just an annoying and inhumane beast that deserved to be buried in the depths of Azarath. Yet, this amount of fan mail was astonishing. She didn't think even Trigon would receive that amount of mail no matter how powerful he was.

Setting the basket of laundry down again, Raven carefully picked out an orange envelope with Robin's name written in overly cursive handwriting. _What atrocious penmanship_. Opening it, she read:

"_Hi RoBiN, My nAmE Is CLARA! Im A __REALLY BIG FAN__ oF YoUrS BeCAuSe I ThInK yOu ArE rEaLLY HoT 3 My MuM ThINKs So tOo!"_

Raven snorted. What in Azarath…? She figured a 5 year old wrote that. If that girl was born a demoness, her handwriting and her stupidity would cause her to be disowned. She selected another envelope with nicer handwriting on top.

"_Hey darling! I watched you on TV the other night kicking ass! You make me SO PROUD! You are like my favourite Titan because like you are so cute? Did you like know that? I mean how do you gel your hair like that everyday? I'm trying to force my boyfriend to like get your hairstyle but it looks like crap on him oh wells I guess you are the only ideal man for me _33 _You know I love you right? Marry me Robin! I'll dump my boyfriend for you! Together we'll be like the best couple! _

_Love and kisses and hugs,_

_Vickiee _

_P.S. The newspapers said you are dating Starfire. I bet they are lying right? Like you are totally my man. Do you want to come to the prom with me?_

Raven grimaced. That was gross. And Starfire was certainly not going out with Robin the way she saw things. No, wait, correction. Robin going out with _anybody_ as a matter of fact was near to impossible. She'd sooner see BB dating Cyborg. Now that was a very interesting thought indeed. Shaking the thought out of head, Raven grimaced. What was this? Wondering how BB's face would look on an underwear and now this? A few months ago she wouldn't even have _thought _of such illogical and ridiculous thoughts. This was bad. She picked up a blue envelope.

"_OH MAN I LOVE YOU SO MUCH ROBIN EVEN THOUGH IM A GUY BUT THAT DOESN'T MATTER RIGHT LOVE KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES…"_

"Reading my fan mail?" Raven jumped and the pile of letters exploded. _Oh shit, shit shit shit shit…._

"There really isn't anything to read." Robin walked over to the pile of letters and picked up one that was torn in half. "By looking at them you already know that they don't have any meaningful information."

Raven kept her eyes down. _Don't look at him don't look at him don't look at him…_

"What did the last letter you read say? You were smiling to yourself." _Wha… what? He wants to know what I read?_

"Er. Something about loving you even though he was a guy." Raven said emotionlessly.

For the first time, Robin smiled in front of Raven. He _smiled._ Somewhere a kitty must have died.

Wait, cancel that. A basket of kitties must have died.

"Mmhmm. There's something I'm curious about."

_Oh my word. He's curious about something. This can't be good this can't be good this can't be good…._

"Show me how you manage to explode things with that…power… of yours." Robin said calmly, leaning against the sofa and folding his arms.

Raven fought to keep a straight face. _Robin?_ Asking her to _show_ him how she managed her powers? This was strange. Maybe BB will really start dating Cyborg…

Robin cocked an eyebrow. "What's the matter?"

Raven quickly regained her senses. "Things explode when I lose control of my powers," she said monotonously. "My emotions control my powers, so…"

"So when you are surprised or when you face something unexpected, you lose it and something near you explodes." Well, he picked up fast.

"Something like that, yes."

"So show me what happens when you are capable of controlling your powers. Like that time when you healed me."

Raven took a deep breath. She actually felt nervous. And it was totally embarrassing. She rather dance in front of Trigon than face this… this… _man._ Fright was indeed a horrible emotion. She could picture Frightened Raven shivering in the corner of her mind.

Slowly, she lifted a hand towards a pillow on the sofa and muttered, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos." The pillow was immediately encased in black and it was lifted off the sofa. Robin remained motionless but Raven just _knew _his eyes were locked on the pillow. To make a point, Raven let the pillow drop unceremoniously onto Robin's head. Or at least she tried to.

A gloved hand shot out and caught the pillow before it could fall on Robin's head. Raven sighed inwardly in disappointment. Just _once_, for Azarath's sake!

"Ah. I see." Robin murmured, fingering an edge of the pillow, seemingly in deep thought. There was a moment of silence between the two. _What is he thinking? Maybe if I could just look into his head for a while… Taking a glimpse wouldn't hurt…_

"Show me what else you can do," Robin said after a while. Raven snatched back her powers before they could enter his head. What a dumb idea. If he could feel her in his head, he would probably restart his whole Slade tirade and by then she would really be screwed.

Sighing, she lifted up her hands again. "My main ability is telekinesis, as I've shown you. I can heal and teleport too. I'll show you."

As she opened her arms and prepared to teleport, she heard a whoosh and Robin was next to her in a flash. He grabbed her arm, and in the name of _Azarath_ it _hurt._ Struggling to keep the pained expression off her face, she turned to face the masked leader, raising an eyebrow questioningly. "Teleport both of us to the other end of the hall," he instructed, his face betraying no emotion.

So he _still_ didn't trust her. That _asshole._ So he thought she would teleport herself out of that Tower and escape to Slade? What a moron. If she really intended to do that she would have done so long ago.

Allowing a small scowl to enter her face, Raven muttered, "Don't let go of my arm." Closing her eyes, she teleported both of them to the other side of the hall. She grinned in satisfaction as Robin stumbled a bit, seeming slightly disoriented. Well, it was a disappointingly milder reaction to the teleportation for a first-timer.

Robin regained his bearings quickly, brushing himself off as if he was trying to remove any invisible curses on him. Normally expected of a seasoned fighter, Raven mused. _It's always better to be safe than sorry_. Raven winced as she remembered how she had learnt that phrase the hard way. She should have known to teleport herself to somewhere obscure when she first arrived on Earth. If she had done that she wouldn't have had to deal with the masked villain. Whoever he was.

Another moment of silence, as Robin digested what he just witnessed. Raven's eyes kept going back to the pile of clothes in the basket. She _really _needed to get those washed. It was such an eyesore, sitting nonchalantly in the middle of the hall. And she _really_ needed to meditate. The silent masked leader was giving her a lot of discomfort.

Robin leaned against the wall, fingering the birdarang on his belt thoughtfully. Raven was starting to become impatient. _I must wash those clothes, I must…_ "Show me how you move objects around again. Try the sofa this time. I want to see how far you can go," Robin instructed.

Raven sighed. This was going to be a long day. Those clothes would have to wait.


	8. Time to be a Titan

Slade was a patient man. He was very proud to call himself the most patient person in Jump City. He had only managed to gain the honourable title of Person-Who-Pisses-Off-the-Teen-Titans-the-Most because of his patience. It had taken him years to gather an army of villains (who didn't really qualify as super-villains, but they were villains all the same) who could wreak substantial havoc in the city and a larger number of years to construct his metal outfit and mask. Not to mention the few years needed to train up his evil-villain voice.

That aside, his patience was what gave him an advantage over that little punk called Robin. He smiled to himself. While Robin was indeed a somewhat suitable representative of the title Boy Wonder in terms of fitness and intelligence, Slade knew that the boy lacked patience. The mere appearance of Plasmus had so easily riled the boy. Maybe that was the reason why both of them stood on different sides. Slade took his time and schemed. Robin just rushed into things and gave himself unnecessarily high blood pressure.

Slade twiddled his thumbs thoughtfully as he lounged on his not-very-comfortable chair. It was a pity that he had to fit into the normal super-villain stereotype. No super-villain had bright palaces with air-conditioning and comfortable chairs. All those he knew lived in dark and gloomy places which stank of rat faeces and other smells Slade preferred not to figure out. And so, Slade himself decided that it would possibly be more fitting to use an abandoned warehouse for his plots. Transforming it into a laboratory had taken up a large sum of money (he had to rob the same bank thrice to cover his costs), but he considered himself fortunate that he didn't have to spend on rental.

In other words, being a super-villain was a shitty job. You lived in shitty places, earned shitty income through shitty ways, and had to keep coming up with shitty plans to maintain your shitty lifestyle.

And in Slade's case, he had to maintain a shitty army of shitty useless shitheads who, until now, had not even managed to bring down the Teen shitty Titans.

However, that was going to change. Slade picked up a photo of a certain purple haired demoness and smiled. Terra failed, but he was pretty sure this young lady here wouldn't. All she needed to do was to stay in the Tower and not make any emotional attachments to anybody. He was pretty sure she was able to handle that. Demonesses were literally incapable of forming emotional attachments with anybody else apart from other demons, anyway. Slade did do his homework.

It had been a few months already, but that was okay with him. After all, he was a patient man. A _very_ patient man indeed.

* * *

"Hm, looks good. Do it again."

Raven threw another feeble punch at the punching bag. It hardly moved.

This was utterly ridiculous. Raven had spent the whole of yesterday showing Robin her powers, and now she was wasting yet another day throwing punches and kicks at a punching bag. She was exhausted, and she still had a truckload of chores she hadn't completed. And she couldn't understand _why _she was being forced to beat up this…this _thing. _Wiping off the perspiration on her forehead with the back of her hand, she turned around to glare at Robin.

"If I'm not wrong, this was not stated anywhere in my contr – "

"That punch was weak. Do it again."

Raven gave another half-hearted punch. "I really shouldn't be wasting my time on –"

"A punch like that wouldn't even harm Gizmo. Try again."

"Gizmo? Who the hell is Giz – "

"Didn't I just tell you to punch the bag? Well, punch it."

Raven lowered her raised fists. What the hell was this? Maid abuse? "No."

"What?"

"I said no."

"What do you mean by 'no'?"

"I'm not going to attack this non-living bolster until you tell me why I'm being forced to do this in the first place," Raven answered monotonously. She was trying to shoot the Glare at Robin. The Glare, by the way, was Trigon's famous trait. Raven hoped that it was hereditary.

Robin paused, and met Raven's Glare with an unreadable expression. Running a gloved hand through his hair, he walked forward to steady the swinging bag. "I can't afford to have a weak fighter on my team if I'm going to bring down Slade."

Raven stared at him, astonished. _What? His team? This has got to be some kind of cruel joke. _"For the record, I prefer not to believe I'm weak. Secondly, being on your team was stated nowhere in my contr – "

"Screw the contract. I could easily draw up a new one."

"But I really prefer my current job, and risking my life by fighting is the last thing I want to – "

"I'll get Cyborg to do up a new room for you unless you want to sleep on the sofa. I'm going to personally train you everyday from 4am onwards, so wake up on time."

"This is ridiculous. What's your motive?"

Robin paused. "I don't know if you are under Slade. It's nearly impossible for me to determine if you are. But there's one thing I'm pretty sure of."

Raven waited, raising an eyebrow.

"Slade doesn't play the same card twice. Last time, he set Terra against us before we took her in as a Teen Titan. He managed to make her betray us because he manipulated her sense of insecurity."

"Sorry, but I still don't know where this is going."

Robin ignored her. "Even though he did fail in the end, it's easy for him to feel a small amount of victory because it did succeed in making me lose my trust in anybody new."

"I can see that," Raven muttered wryly.

"He probably thinks that because of that, he can now manipulate _me._ He knows that I will never agree to taking in a new Titan because I don't want to risk having another Terra mess up our lives."

"And so? Explain this situation then."

"I'm going to do the opposite. I'm going to recruit you as a Titan, and I'm going to make you trust us. I want to see how he plans to manipulate a Titan again."

"So what, I'm _bait_?"

"Not really, consider yourself an experiment."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

"Sorry for that. I didn't really consider the 'Raven's feelings' part when I came up with this idea."

"Sooner or later you are going to realised how stupid this whole thing is. I already told you I don't even know who Slade is."

"Then I'll find out sooner or later, won't I?"

Raven tried the Glare again. It didn't work. She must be losing her touch.

"So… how are you going to inform the rest about your oh-so-grand plan?"

"You kidding? They know about it alre – "

The other 3 Titans chose the perfect time to flounce into the room. "HELLO DEAR FRIENDS!" BB cried happily, throwing his arms out and prancing towards Robin. His over-friendly gesture was immediately met by a dismissive punch to the face and he collapsed in a heap on the ground.

"Sheesh, BB. When did you start picking up Star's lingo?"

"My lingo? Is that a type of drink, friend Robin?"

"Forget it."

BB was up in a flash again. "So, hate to interrupt your lover's chat, but have you told her yet?"

"Told me… what?"

"It wasn't a lover's chat, you moron." Robin and Cyborg said in unison.

"Well! It seems like Robbie-poo did!" BB smiled widely.

"For the last time, shithead, I have a name and it's not Robbie-poo." Robin's eyes nearly burnt two neat holes in his mask. Raven wondered if it was fireproof.

"It matters not! So," BB walked over to Raven and extended a hand. "Allow me to formally introduce myself now that we are officially team mates. The name's - "

"Um, I kind of know your name."

" – ah. Skip the name then. I'm eighteen and I'm a single green male with a bod that spells s-e-x-y."

"Um."

"I love video games and vegetarian pizzas, but most importantly, I like you. You're irresistibly cute." BB waggled his eyebrows.

Raven stared back. _If I'm not wrong, there was no link between the first part and the second part of the sentence…_

"You've been reading too many pick up lines online, haven't you?" Robin muttered.

There was a moment of silence. "It couldn't have been _that _obvious, could it?"

"Nah, it wasn't," Cyborg answered sarcastically. "I mean, Starfire didn't get it, did you, Star?"

Starfire shook her head innocently.

"See? So, Master Yoda, next time you could try using better pick up lines and stop trying to hit on every female you see."

"Yoda? What the hell? He's ugly and wrinkled!"

"I don't see the difference. Besides, both of you are small green creatures with little hair and both of you talk weirdly in ways no one appreciates."

"Aww, that was mean, Robbie-poo!"

"For the last time – " Robin was cut off by the Titan alarm. Cursing under his breath, he dug into his pockets and threw a communicator at Raven, who caught it quickly before it hit her face. "Titans, go!"

Raven stood for a moment, dumbfounded, as the Titans started their ritual of leaping over things before exiting the Tower. Starfire's head popped back through the doorway. "Dear friend Raven, whatever are you waiting for?"

Raven snapped out of her reverie and struggled to regain her calm. _This couldn't be happening. This is crazy. I'm going to pinch myself and realise that all this is some nightmare…_

"Why are you pinching yourself, friend Raven? Does that aid your fighting?" Starfire immediately started to pinch herself.

"No! Don't do that! It's just… Never mind. How do we get there?"

"Ah yes, friend Robin has instructed that both of us are to fly to our destination."

"_Fly?_"

"Yes, friend Raven. Will that be too difficult for you?"

"Ah, no. Just… just lead the way, thanks."

Starfire gave her a reassuring smile and zipped out of the doorway. Raven followed quickly.

_So, I'm a Titan now. This is surreal. _

_Wait. When the hell am I going to be given time to do the laundry?_


	9. 99 Armies of Ducks on the Wall

It was a breezy day. The sun, a bit embarrassed by the fact that he was severely outnumbered by fat grey clouds, decided that he would conceal his shame by hiding behind the dangerous-looking clouds before they ate him. The sun consciously told himself to take revenge on those brats when their forces were reduced.

Of course, Raven didn't have time to appreciate the breeze because she was flying at top speed right behind Starfire so that she wouldn't lose her. Her cloak billowed behind her, and she had to pull up her hood to prevent it from whipping into her cheek. Looking down, she caught a glimpse of the blue-white car zipping down the street - matching the two's speed - before a group of trees blocked her view. Man, it was fast. And here she was thinking that she was flying at the speed of an arrow.

The communicator kept slotted in her belt started to beep loudly. Momentarily distracted, she grabbed the device and fumbled with the buttons on it. _Damn it, which one should I press? _Thankfully, the screen changed and a voice suddenly erupted from the communicator, nearly causing Raven to drop it in alarm.

It was Cyborg's voice. "Ah, ah, testing Raven's communicator, 1, 2, 3. Can you hear me, Raven? Say something so we can test the mic on yours."

"Um, yeah. Hi?"

"HI RAVEN! I CAN SEE YOU ABOVE US!" BB's voice rang, loud and resonant. Raven winced as her eardrums complained from the sudden burst of noise.

"Hm, sounds good. Okay Raven, seems like you figured out how to handle the communicator, so if you need any help, just press the yellow button alright?"

Raven scrutinised the communicator. All the buttons were yellow.

"Er, all the buttons are yel – "

"Star, I need you to bring Raven to the back of the building. Seems like someone is stirring up something there. We'll surround them." Robin's voice cut her off.

Starfire's response was muffled by BB. "Dude, we are like, a million years away from the building? We should have a bonding session with our newest team member or something."

"BB, I think it's time to switch off Friendster mode."

"Aww come on, you guys are no fun." Raven could picture BB sticking his tongue out and pouting.

It was Cyborg's voice again. "You do realise 3 of us are in the same car right? We don't exactly need to use the communicator."

There was a moment of silence. "You do have a point," BB admitted. "But where's the fun if we can't converse with the two beautiful ladies up there?"

Raven thought it would be a good time to interrupt. "Oh, that's alright, we don't exactly need anyone to talk to us right no – "

"Shut up, BB. You are annoying." Robin cut in curtly. Apparently, he had forgotten to switch off his communicator.

"Ah, you jealous Robbie-poo? I can always talk with you y'know, though we should keep it a little _private…_"

"Eeesh, gerroff me. Stop salivating on my shoulder."

"Wanna share my blankie? I brought one."

"Hmm, let me think…" There was a prolonged pause. "_No._"

"What about my pillow?"

"Oh, gee, thanks. How did you know I actually wanted to share your pillow and not your blanket?"

"I just know, Robbie-poo." Robin didn't bother to reply. However, there was a swoosh sound from the communicator and BB immediately started yelling, accompanied by Cyborg's maniacal cackling.

"AWW COME ON ROB YOU DIDN'T NEED TO THROW THEM OUT OF THE WINDOW! YOU SUCK ROB YOU SUCK SO BAD – "

"I told you to stop touching me, you shithead."

For the first time, BB kept silent.

Although the silence didn't last very long.

"Fine. NINETY-NINE ARMIES OF DUCKS ON THE WALL! NINETY-NINE ARMIES OF DUCKS! TAKE ONE DOWN, PASS IT AROUND…"

"Oh for the love of – " Robin muttered.

" - NINETY EIGHT ARMIES OF DUCKS!"

"We are a few miles from the building – WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY?" Cyborg boomed.

"Blame Robin! He took my blankie and pillow away from me! NINETY EIGHT ARMIES OF DUCKS ON THE WALL, NINETY EIGHT ARMIES OF – "

Raven groaned inwardly. If BB was going to keep up with his song, she was going to lose control of her emotions soon. She had to think of something to preoccupy the green changeling.

"Er. Realistically, it isn't possible for duck armies to be on the wall." She said slowly into her communicator. "Unless you want to defy gravitational laws."

BB immediately shut up as he considered Raven's reasoning.

"Thank god," Cyborg breathed.

* * *

**10 minutes later**

"NINETY SEVEN ARMIES OF DUCKS IN THE POND, NINETY SEVEN ARMIES OF DUCKS! TAKE ONE DOWN, PASS IT AROUND…"

Raven could hear Robin ramming his head against the car window in frustration. "Ask him another rhetorical question, please," he said desperately into his communicator.

Raven found herself desperately trying to find another question. Her flying was distracting her from all reasoning and she found, much to her dismay, that she didn't know what to ask BB.

"Perhaps you could throw him out of the window too, Rob," Cyborg suggested hopefully.

BB stopped singing. Cyborg sighed in relief and Robin stopped ramming his head against the window.

There was a momentary pause. "We're here," Robin said firmly. Raven looked down at the scene before her. It was a mess. She could distantly make out a figure throwing pink bolts at people running around randomly near a building, and she thought she saw a car fly and crash into a tree. _What in the name of Azarath…_

"Jinx," Robin snarled.

"Oh great, what a surprise. I was hoping it would be someone hotter." BB muttered.

Starfire motioned for Raven to follow her. Both of them glided through the air behind the partially destroyed building as the other 3 Titans advanced towards the pink haired villain.

Robin pushed his way past frantic people as they scrambled to get out of harm's way. Jinx laughed maniacally as she cartwheeled around and leisurely shot pink bolts from her fingers. The smile never left her face even as she caught sight of the Titans.

"Ah, what a surprise. Hi, Robin," she waggled her fingers affectionately, then continued dismissively. "… and the rest."

"Hey…" BB started indignantly, but Robin signalled for him to shut up.

"What do you want now, Jinx? Or more like, what does Slade want now?"

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Oh, dear Robin. Spare me the clichéd hero questions please."

"I don't have time to be entertaining you and your small talk."

"Ah, I see. I guess I should be saying my evil lines now, shouldn't I? Something along the lines of… hold on I've got it… ah, oh no it's the Teen Titans who have come to ruin my evil plan of torturing people! Prepare to die at my hands! Did you want to hear something like that, Robin?"

"Oh, how did you know?" Robin replied sarcastically.

"I just know," Jinx waved a hand dismissively, then proceeded to scrutinise it. "I would have been doing my nails at a time like this, if Slade hadn't told me to come over and rile you guys up a bit."

The mention of Slade's name piqued Robin's curiosity. "Slade?" he asked irritably. "What now?"

"Whoops, have I let on too much?" Jinx giggled. "Keep the Slade part a secret, kay?"

BB moaned, slapping a hand to his forehead. "Spare me the mindfuck games, seriously."

Robin sighed. "Let's get on with it then. Titans, go!"

Cyborg and BB charged forward, Cyborg aiming his gun at the villain and BB transforming into a rhinoceros. Both attacks missed as Jinx made a perfect somersault in the air and landed behind them, fingers aimed at their backs.

"Duck!" Robin yelled, brandishing his staff and swiping it towards Jinx. It only managed to land a scratch as Jinx quickly moved out of the way. Unfortunately, both Cyborg and BB were still hit squarely in the backs by her curses, and both flew a considerable distance away to crash into the building, creating two distinct holes, one considerably larger than the other.

"Dammit, I hate those pink thingies she keeps throwing at us," BB complained, emerging from the hole in his human form and rubbing his bruised shoulder. Cyborg emerged soon after, and his face was a thundercloud. "Wait until I get my hands on that pink haired bitc - "

"Star, about time?" Robin shouted, charging towards the smiling villain again and attempting to land a punch on her cheek. She blocked it with an arm, and the two immediately started to engage in hand-to-hand combat. While Robin's main strength lay in his agility and physical combat, he knew after many previous encounters with Jinx that the girl was a force to be reckoned with.

And her face kind of creeped him out. Though he wasn't going to admit it to anyone.

Robin cursed as she managed to land a punch on his arm, nearly causing him to drop his staff. Taking advantage of his distraction, she started to produce a bolt with her other hand.

Luckily for him, Starfire appeared at the right time and managed to shoot a well-aimed starbolt at Jinx's shoulder. Jinx grunted from the force of the shot, and she shifted her attention towards the pretty alien. _Uh oh,_ Robin thought, as Jinx's eyes glowed pink in anger. Starfire hurled a few more bolts at her, but Robin knew that if Jinx unleashed that curse, Starfire was as good as screwed.

"Over here, bitch!" Robin shouted, hurling a birdarang at Jinx. She managed to dodge it, though it did land a small scratch on her cheek. Her sudden improvement in speed over the past few months shocked him. What had Slade been feeding her?_  
_

_Whoops, bad choice to injure her face._ Jinx's anger at her scratched face just made her aim her curse at him now. He groaned inwardly. At this rate, he was not going to be able to dodge that attack and he was definitely going to transform into a pile of ash or something, depending on what Jinx wanted to do with him.

Just as Jinx released the curse right at him, Robin felt an odd sensation. _Wait. This feels like…_ Instantly, he was lifted off the ground and the curse shot below him harmlessly at the place he used to be standing.

_I'm floating?_ Robin looked below him incredulously. Starfire wasn't carrying him, so it could only be… He froze. In the heat of the fight, he had nearly forgotten the last Titan he had entrusted to Starfire.

Raven stood in mid-air, frowning in concentration, her outstretched hands encased in a familiar black aura. It came back to him now. He had this weird feeling when she… she teleported him. His whole body was covered by a strange tingling sensation, and he resisted the urge to sweep off the feeling.

* * *

Ever so carefully, Raven set the leader back down on the ground far away from the crazy pink haired girl. Or that was what she viewed this villain as. She had never seen anybody with such a ridiculous hairdo which reminded Raven vaguely of a horseshoe. And seriously, did she actually colour-code her hair with her attacks? How was it possible that everything was _pink_?

Jinx diverted her attention towards Raven and lifted an eyebrow suspiciously. "And who are you?"

"None of your business," Raven retorted without thinking. Then she realised how everyone was staring at her questioningly, including the suspended leader.

BB whistled. "You go girl," he chortled.

Jinx shot Raven a glare. "Some new team member, eh? What a pity. She totally wasted her talents on such a group of losers."

Cyborg bristled. "Group of losers? I'll show you loser – "

"Quit it, Cy. Don't get agitated by her," Robin said calmly. "You can put me down now, Raven."

Raven sheepishly let him down. And here she was fantasizing about turning him upside down…

"LOOK OUT!" A pink curse shot towards the unsuspecting demoness, and she quickly put up a shield in the nick of time. For the first time, she wanted to thank Robin for his warning.

Jinx laughed again, although this time it sounded a bit unsure. "You know all of you are not actually capable of – "

"Losing to you? Yeah, sure. We have loads of evidence," BB piped up. Jinx glared at him.

Producing a watch from out of nowhere (or possibly an invisible pocket Raven didn't manage to see), Jinx sighed exaggeratedly as she checked the time. "Ah, look at the time!" she said loudly. "Hate to break it to you guys, but today's just not the day."

"Day to what?" Robin asked angrily. He was growing tired of her remarks.

"Hmm, let's put it in that crude way of yours. Ah, yes. Kick your ass, of course." Jinx smiled widely. "Oh well, I guess we were just not fated to be, Robin dear."

It was Robin's turn to bristle. "Don't you think of going anywhere – " he started before Jinx cut him off with a new peal of laughter and cartwheeled towards a car that had suddenly appeared from nowhere. Raven wondered whether the girl ever felt dizzy with her mad acrobatics.

The Titans hurled a large number of attacks towards the escaping villain, but most of them missed. Raven concluded wryly that it was high time someone got them glasses. As the car sped off, she watched as Robin attempted to chase it, throwing a last birdarang which bounced harmlessly off the boot.

And then he let loose a whole string of curse words Raven never believed existed. She winced slightly.

The Titans stood in silence as they watched their leader. Raven reached forward to heal his arm, but he shrugged her off, muttering, "I don't need it. Heal the others first." She raised an eyebrow, but complied. The last thing she wanted to do was annoy the already riled leader. Those birdarangs _did _ look kind of vicious.

BB broke the silence. "So, who's up for some pizza?" Cyborg raised his hand immediately, followed by Starfire. Robin shrugged his shoulders resignedly. In the Titan system, the majority usually won.

Raven fidgeted uncomfortably. "Well then, I guess I should be going back to wash the –"

"Not in a chance, buddy," BB interrupted, slinging an arm over her shoulder. "You have to participate in the sacred ritual of the pizza-eating after a long and strenuous fight."

"Er, I didn't really do anyth – "

"No excuses, girl," BB said cheerfully and started to steer her towards the car. "We can all squeeze into the car since it's just a short drive away. Vegetarian pizzas, here we come!"

Cyborg started to quarrel with BB over which pizzas to order. Raven hesitated before following the rest of the Titans towards the car. She had a very bad feeling that all this was just the beginning of her horrible nightmare.

* * *

"AWWW COME ON, IT'S A WEDNESDAY! WHY IS IT CLOSED?"

Raven watched as Cyborg and BB started to pound the locked glass doors of the pizza place desperately, wailing. BB looked as if the apocalypse had just occurred. Raven wondered why none of them seemed to notice the large sign on the doors which explained the current situation well enough.

She hesitated. "The sign says the restaurant is closed on Wednesdays. It's pretty obvious," she pointed out. Cyborg and BB stopped their ranting for a moment, looking at the sign, before restarting their tirade. Cyborg began to pull springs out of his head frustratedly, a sight Raven found a lot more disturbing than BB's transformations. BB, on the other hand, resorted to squatting in a corner to complain about how all-knowing sex gods were constantly being cheated by the evil pizza people.

Starfire seemed to be the only one who didn't mind the closure. "That is alright, friends! I can always make all of you a delicious Tamaranian snack to cheer everybody up!"

Her suggestion was met with silence. If BB's face could turn any greener, it just did.

"Thanks for the offer, Star, but we are really fine." Robin said hurriedly. Raven had never seen the leader so flustered before. She started to doubt the credibility of Starfire's cooking.

Cyborg stopped complaining and started to rub his chin thoughtfully. "Well, y'know, we do have a few cans of beer back home..."

"No drinking on weekdays, Cy," Robin said firmly. "I thought we did set some ground rules."

Cyborg sagged in disappointment. "Aww man, it's just _one - "  
_

_"No, _Cy."

BB chose the perfect time to cut in. "Oh wells,we poor things have nothing to look forward to! Where is the justice in that? And you dare to call yourself a leader, Robin? What shall I do now? Oh, I have an idea. Maybe I should lighten our sorrows by singing the tragic melody of the ducks."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Tragic melody of the ducks?"

"You got that right. Now," BB cleared his throat and sang in a melancholy voice, "Ninetyyy nineeee armieees of duuucks oooon the waaaalllll, ninetyyyy nineee - "

"Oh my god, please don't start that again."

"- armieeees ooof duuuuckks!"

Cyborg glared at BB. "That's the same fucking son - "

Raven watched helplessly as a full blown fight commenced with both Cyborg and Robin trying to silence the small green Titan who resolutely refused to shut his mouth. To her astonishment, Starfire seemed to be moved to tears by BB's rendition of the duck song, her large green eyes brimming with tears.

This was unbelievable.

"OKAY, OKAY! YOU GUYS CAN DRINK, ALRIGHT?" Robin yelled over BB's loud singing. The horrible tune finally stopped, and BB flashed a large grin. "I knew it would work!" he said triumphantly, punching a victorious fist into the air. Even Cyborg stopped pummelling him.

"I'm warning you, no more than 2 cans a person, you hear me? I'm not having drunk idiots roaming around the Tower and I'm certainly _not _going to bring piss-drunk people to fight."

"Yes, mother." Cyborg and BB said together. They proceeded to glare at one another for having said the same sentence, as if whoever owned the sentence was really that important.

"Would you buy me a new blankie too, mother?" BB asked hopefully, eyes shining.

"Don't push your luck."

"Ah, at least it was worth a try."

Raven resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She realised, much to her discomfort, that Robin had now shifted his gaze onto her. She attempted to change her position such that she was conveniently not facing him.

Luckily for her, Robin's studious gaze left her face after a few minutes. "Let's go then," he sighed. "I need to take a shower."

Raven followed the rest of the Titans as they packed into the T-car. While there was little space, they still managed to fit, although with loads of complaints from the males. As Cyborg started the car, she looked out of the window, staring at the azure sky above.

_What in the name of Azarath have I gotten myself into?_


	10. Trust

"Wow, thanks, old man. You totally _neglected_ to inform me about that weird purple haired witch before you sent me off? You _neglected _to tell me what she could do? Did you know she could have _owned_ me if she wasn't so inexperienced?" Jinx shouted angrily, pointing an accusing finger at Slade. "You are really just out to humiliate me, aren't you? You sickening, gross, ugly, _sadistic _..."

"Spare me the insults, Jinx." Slade winced inwardly as he imagined the other insulting adjectives Jinx had in mind. "You know better than anyone that I would never send you out there without a plan ready."

"… freak." Jinx continued. "Oh, awesome. I'm honoured to be involved in yet another one of your great plans. Hate to burst your bubble here, but none of these _great_ schemes of yours have ever been successful for all the _centuries_ you've been pitting yourself against those brats!"

"Please don't exaggerate my age and experience. I am, after all, not _that _old."

"That isn't the point! The point is…"

"The point is you will no longer question my authority on this issue. It seems I may have given you a bit too much freedom in the way you address me, Jinx. You can be assured that I will _not_ give you the privilege of fighting the Titans anymore, if that's what you wish."

"Of course not, I – "

"Shut your mouth, please," Slade said wearily. "Listening to your ramblings damages my eardrums. I'll tell you what I have in store for that group, and I don't wish to be interrupted." He motioned to the projector in front of him, and a picture of Raven Roth sprung up. Jinx scowled as she remembered the face of the witch who had talked back at her. The way the girl talked unnerved her. It was like the voice of a zombie, and it scared her far more than Cinderblock's voice. Strangely, she found herself anticipating Slade's plan for the witch. If this witch was on Slade's side, well, Jinx knew that the Titans were in a pretty bad position. But then again, the Titans were a formidable group.

"Now here we have the girl in question." Slade said. Jinx leaned forward interestedly, pink eyes fixated on the screen. _Here it comes. He's going to announce The Scheme. The ultimate plan that would get Raven onto our side and kick the crap out of the Titans. Finally, there would be a plan of Slade's that actually works. Finally…_

"We will let her stay in the Tower for some more time, then we'll convince her to serve me and we will get information out of her regarding the Titans and we will destroy them once and for all." Slade said triumphantly.

There was a moment of silence. "Wow, awesome plan." Jinx glowered. "THAT'S THE SAME USELESS PLAN WE USED ON TERRA AND LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!"

"Well," Slade fumbled for words. "This one is different. "

"Uh huh. How exactly is it any different?"

"Well, to start with, this one won't make any friends there."

"You said the same thing about Terra. I can't believe this. You aren't very imaginative, are you?"

"Jinx, I recall asking you to shut your mouth while I tried to explain my idea," Slade said tiredly. He was getting slightly annoyed. An incredible feat by Jinx considering the fact that Slade was a _very_ patient man.

"Yes _sir,_" Jinx said sarcastically. "Just one more question. How the hell are we going to get her _out_ of the Tower?"

"That's pretty simple. We invite her."

"_Invite _her? You aren't actually considering the whole mind games thing are you?"

"That 'mind games thing' happens to be my forte."

Jinx sighed audibly. "Whatever, okay. You can bury yourself in the happy illusion that it's going to work on Roth. It worked on Robin and Terra, but in all due respect, I believe I should warn you that this girl is _totally_ different from the others."

"And why would you say that, Jinx?"

"Because…" Jinx hesitated. Dared she tell her master that something about the witch creeped her out? Of course she couldn't. Her foxy and uncaring attitude _made_ her reputation. And she had to protect it at all costs. "… just because, okay? It's a hunch. After all," she added breezily. "No one understands a witch better than another witch, right?"

"For the record," Slade said amusedly. "Raven Roth is no witch. From what I have gathered, she is a demoness, daughter of the demon Trigon."

"And that's supposed to mean…?"

"That she may not be like what you think. Well, even if she does manage to resist my… invitation, we can always use force. You should know better than I am that Raven alone is no match for the H.I.V.E."

"It's true that she alone stands no chance, but the _Titans_…"

"Will not be able to save her if we can distract them. Now go and leave me in peace. I have another bank I need to rob to keep up with our ridiculous expenses." Slade turned back to the projector screen, hands clasped behind his back.

Jinx nodded stiffly, and walked off. As she thought about it, the idea seemed to be quite shaky to her, but if it actually worked… A little smile formed on her face. The result could be _perfect._

* * *

The Titans had not, after all, listened to their leader's instructions. Cyborg had totally underestimated the amount of sinfully tempting cans of beer he had stored in the enormous Titan fridge, and Robin alone was no match for the might of 3 weary Titans in desperate need for a good drink. This, naturally, excluded Raven.

The other 4 titans gathered at the table, BB and Cyborg gulping down can after can while Starfire took careful sips and Robin sat forlornly at the side, arms folded. Raven knew he was deeply regretting his decision to relent to BB's annoying pleads, but yet he had to stay to keep an eye on the other 3 titans. If there was anything good about Robin, Raven had to grudgingly admit that he was a very responsible leader. Though a bit naggy at times.

Turning away from the messy scene before her, Raven's hands moved to the cupboard where she had stored her tea bags. It was a habitual thing to have a small cup of tea early in the mornings, and she realised that somehow it helped her to calm her emotions. At least she didn't have to sacrifice a few more innocent cups because of her moods.

Just as she was about to retrieve a tea bag, a pair of green hands clapped around her shoulders and all but yanked her away from the cupboard and towards the direction of the table.

"Here we have da lady Raewen!" BB sang in a slurred tone, steering her towards an empty chair next to his own. "While our dear brave Robin wash kickin' the ash outta Jinsh, she got dis… dis… dis pink shpell and she went all bitchy like _oh no you didn't I'm gonna bitchslap you w' my pink thingy_ then Robin wash like '_shit I have no time ta hide' _and…" BB made a dramatic pose in the air. "Raewen came and she did dish hullabollah thingsh and wooo! Robin wash like flyin' and Raewen wash like _dun worry pardner I'm not gonna let ya die_ and it wash like…"

Cyborg raised a can. "Yeah man, it was like 'oh my god Robin's flyin' man'! C'mon, cheers for Raven!"

BB and Cyborg slammed their cans together, and laughed manically before drowning themselves in alcohol once more. Robin scowled, but said nothing. BB opened another can, and threw it in front of Raven.

"Here mansh, da lady should take a drink!"

Raven waved her hands desperately. "No really, I'm fine, I don't…"

"DA LADY SHOULD TAKE A DRINK!"

"No please, I really don't drin – "

"DAA LADDDYYY SHOOOUUUULLDDDD TTTAAAKKKEEE AAAHHHH DDRRRIINNKKK!"

Raven winced, and took the can cautiously. She wanted to set it down and tell BB that she would help herself to it, but BB was looking at her too expectantly. If she drank this thing, was she going to be in such a humiliating drunken state? She threw a pleading glance at Robin. Maybe just once, the leader could help…

Okay, maybe he wouldn't. Robin shrugged his shoulders, and looked away. Even he seemed to know that she was no match for a drunken Beast Boy.

Ever so carefully, Raven lifted the can to her lips and took a sip. She struggled to keep her face from scrunching up. It was _sewage._ How did anyone actually manage to gulp down a whole can of this thing? The liquid burned her throat, and she had to slow herself down as she set the can back on the table.

Then she smiled and faced the green changeling again. "Ah, it was very nice, thank you."

BB continued to look at her expectantly. Raven returned his stare nervously, twiddling her thumbs together. Was she supposed to do something else? Like dance with the can? Or sing something? Or…

"You're supposed ta finish it," Cyborg piped up, leaning forward and pushing the can into Raven's hands again.

"Oh, this is enough for me, thank you very – "

"_Do drink it, friend Raven." _Raven winced as she turned to face Starfire. The red haired alien was smiling, but her eyes glinted dangerously. What the hell was with the happy-Star-scary-Star routine? She found this scene strangely nostalgic, and she could _swear _the bastard Robin was giving a little smirk. When this was over, she would make sure he will pay for this. He _will _regret it.

Well, as long as she was brave enough to make him pay.

Slowly, she lifted the can to her lips again and took a longer sip this time. The taste was horrible, but she managed to maintain her calm expression. She was a demoness, for fuck's sake. A demoness would never be defeated by the likes of a beer can.

When she was done, she set the can back on the table in relief. Her vision was getting slightly blurry, and strangely the room seemed to be rotating. An earthquake? And why had Robin suddenly grown horns? This was weird. He was starting to look like Trigon. He just needed a few more eyes. Then why wasn't she scared? She suddenly felt so brave. Yeah, she was a demoness. A damn good demoness. She shouldn't be scared at all.

Smiling slightly, she accepted the next offer of beer from Beast Boy. And she drank, and drank, and drank.

* * *

"Y'know, that day, I went shwmming, ya know. Like fishy. I met dish really hot dolphin, y'know. And she wash like 'hey hottie you're green' and I wash like 'yeah duh one-of-a-kind' then…"

"Shuddup, I don't wanna hear your romantic bullshit." Cyborg moaned, reaching for another drink.

"…then anyway she wash like 'loadsh of tuna nowadaysh' and I wash like 'really datsh cool' and I shaw dish really fat tuna fishy shwimming below me. I mean, what do they put in the tuna deesh daysh? They like genetically engineer them or shomething, I dunno, shucks! Freaking huge man, shcared me shitless."

"Fucking tunas," Cyborg muttered, shaking his head sympathetically.

Beast Boy sighed. "Tell me 'bout it. I gotta tell that bashtard Aqualad. What the shit hash he been doin' man, lazing around while hish tuna wash gettin' fat? Nextsh thing we know, his fucking guppies gonna blow up the shize of a hot air balloon, and they gonna shtart eating sharksh. Like thosh great white onesh y'know, met one of them wonsh, he wash shcared of the clown fishies getting bigger."

"Nemo's fucking fault," Cyborg replied.

"Yeah, yeah. Man, deesh clownfishy pisshh me off, y'know. Tried talking to one of them wonsh, not even funny. Shtar can tell funnier jokesh, fuck me."

Robin lounged in the sofa, reading the newspapers as the two titans continued to engage in meaningless conversations. Starfire had left to her room earlier to continue reading her fan letters, which she had complained were getting a bit too short and half-hearted for her liking. Robin longed to go back to his room as well, but he couldn't, not when he had piss-drunk titans sitting around talking nonsense. The last time he left Cyborg and BB alone while they were drunk, they had initiated a war with each other. When Robin came out to check the commotion, he found an army of Cyborg's machines getting ready to fight with BB's army of animals. Majority of which were ducks.

Robin shook the memory from his head. Not one he wanted to keep.

However, now there was one more worry. The purple haired demoness was sitting at the table quietly, clutching her beer can tightly. God knows how many she drank. Robin couldn't see whether she was drunk because her hood was pulled over her head, but as she got up she stumbled a bit before heading towards the large doors leading to the titans' rooms. Where was she going?

Quickly, Robin got up and followed her. He didn't think Cyborg and BB were going to start a fight, considering the fact that they had started talking about mutant pizzas and evil pizza restaurant owners, so he could spare a minute. He would just see what she was up to, then bring her back and continue keeping an eye on the other two.

Keeping his distance, he watched as Raven staggered through the doors and down the corridor. A rubbish bin at the corner exploded as she walked past, and he kicked aside the mess absently. He had figured she couldn't control her powers well in her state. And anyway, she would clean the mess up tomorrow.

They turned corner after corner, and Robin started to feel slightly uncomfortable. This way was strangely familiar. It could not be…

Raven came to a halt right in front of Robin's room door. Robin watched her warily. What was she planning to do? Slowly, she raised a finger and pointed it accusingly at the door.

"Damn you," she seethed at the door. "Damn you and your stupid costume and your stupid hair and your stupid metal… thing and your stupid birdarangs and your stupid mask!"

Robin winced. He had a feeling this was going to get a lot worse.

"Who do you think you are, huh? Ordering people around, being so damn _stuck up_ all the time, being such a suspicious _freak_…" Raven hiccupped. "All you do is ask me '_how do I know you are not Slade's crony? How do I know you are not here to kill all of us?'_ and then you go all pissy and scary."

Robin frowned. He was _not_ pissy.

"I dunno who Slade is, alright? I DON'T KNOW WHO THE FUCK IS HE, ALRIGHT?" Raven yelled at the door, swinging her fists angrily. A potted plant beside her exploded.

Robin reached forward to grab her arm, but suddenly she started to sob. Raven… sobbing?

"You guys are the only ones I have," she told the door quietly. "I can't leave. I'm scared. I can't trust anyone. For the first time, I actually feel safe here. And I don't want to lose it."

She sank, palms resting on the door. "I'll be a good Titan, I promise. I won't… I won't betray anybody. I'll practise hard and gain experience. By Azarath I promise. So please just… please let me…"

Raven collapsed on the ground in front of the door, breathing slowly and gently. Robin sighed. He could take her back outside with the drunkards, but now that she was right here, he guessed it would be more convenient to bring her in. Punching the code, he carried the small demoness up and into his room, kicking aside towels and socks in the way. She didn't have time to clear all this up since she was fighting with them earlier in the day.

Setting her down on the bed, Robin stood up and watched her sleeping form, arms akimbo. What was she afraid of? Why couldn't she trust anybody? And what was Azarath? Some secret organization?

Too many questions, and yet no answers. Sighing, Robin peeled off his mask and threw it on the bedside table. He had been suffering from insomnia recently, but tonight he felt strangely sleepy for some reason. He turned around to face Raven again. This girl… she did some crazy things to people. His nightmares about Slade had stopped coming ever since she arrived, and his ever present sense of insecurity had waned down too. He wondered if she knew what effect she had on the titans.

Running a hand through his hair, Robin walked towards the cupboard and grabbed a mattress. Good thing he had one handy. Pulling off his shirt, he settled down on the mattress and began to think. He was going to need to start drafting out a training regime for Raven and get Cyborg to speed up the progress of constructing her room. She seemed truthful about Slade. Maybe it was time to start putting a little trust in her.

Sleep came quickly.


	11. And here we go

Sunlight streamed through the window and illuminated the room. Raven woke with a start, jolting up in the bed and rubbing her eyes frantically with the back of her palms. Her first instinct was to find a clock to check the time, hands fumbling clumsily with the objects on the bedside table in search for an alarm clock. Then she froze. _Bedside table?_ She looked at the blankets, then the table, and then the surrounding walls. _I don't remember having a room. Fuck, my head hurts. _Where was this place? It seemed familiar, but her throbbing head was not helping with her thinking process. If only she could remember what this place was…

With a yelp, Raven jumped out of the bed, and unceremoniously stepped on something hard. She didn't hear the muffled '_ow, fuck'_ that came from under her foot.

Wait, it wasn't hard. It was kind of soft, and… bouncy? Like meat? She nudged the hard thing again absently with her foot, staring at the walls warily as she came to the dangerous realization that she was in Robin's room.

"Are you going to keep prodding me or are you going to get your foot off my chest?" Raven froze again, rooted to the spot. Ever so slowly, she let her eyes drop to the ground. There lay the leader on a mattress, glaring at her through his mask. And his chest was _bare._

Raven jumped away immediately, back against the wall. She didn't know what to say. Her mind just kept repeating _oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck _endlessly.

"Good morning to you too," Robin muttered, getting up and ruffling his messy hair again. "How's your head?"

Raven realised that due to her shock she had momentarily forgotten her headache. Her head started to throb unpleasantly again, and she winced. "What… what happened yesterday night?"

"Yesterday night? Oh, you got drunk."

"Dr… drunk?"

"Yeah. You collapsed outside my room. I was nice enough to bring you in here, but," Robin scowled. "I'm never going to let you guys _touch_ alcohol again. The two idiots out there seem to enjoy getting wasted. They are going to be the death of me, I swear."

"I'm sorry."

Robin glanced at her, an unreadable expression on his face. Was that… amusement? "Nothing to worry about. It seems you say quite… interesting things when you get drunk."

"Interesting things?" Raven could vaguely recall herself stumbling through the doors and walking through the hallway in search of Robin's room… standing outside and venting her anger at the door…. "Oh my god," she breathed, stealing a nervous glance at the leader. "I really didn't mean it."

"Really didn't mean it?" Robin raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Yeah, I didn't mean to call you names. I mean, I've never gotten drunk before, so… never mind. Just pretend I never said anything, alright?"

Robin relaxed. So she hadn't remembered her desperate pleadings. He shrugged. Things were less awkward this way anyway. "I didn't pick up much. Just something about having a problem with my 'stupid mask'?"

"No! I really didn't – "

Robin chuckled. "Relax. You're not the first irrational drunk person I've met." He pulled on a shirt which he had grabbed from the cupboard and walked towards the room door. "We're going to need to get you something for that headache. I'm pretty sure the two morons are going to need it too."

* * *

When the two entered the hall, they were greeted by the sight of a sleeping Beast Boy sprawled across the sofa, letting out colossal snores that Raven never thought the small green changeling was capable of producing. Strangely, he had a pink underwear fitted over his head like a hat, and each of his hands clasped a used milk bottle.

Robin gave a resigned sigh as he walked past the sofa, picking up the underwear gingerly with 2 fingers and tossing it onto the floor. "I don't even want to know what they have been up to," he muttered. "When I left them they were still talking about pizzas or something."

"Aqualad, your guppies! Your guppies…" BB moaned, stirring in the sofa. He proceeded to bury his head in the pillows.

Cyborg, on the other hand, had managed to wake up earlier thanks to the robot side of his brain. "Sup, people," he called cheerfully from behind the kitchen counter, waving his arm. "I'm cookin' meat. Anyone want some?"

Raven's maid instincts took over. "That's okay, I'll handle the brea – "

Cyborg waved her off dismissively. "Now, now, sit down. You're a Titan now. You're no maid anymore." Raven cast a glance at Robin, who shrugged and said nothing. The two joined Starfire at the table, sitting opposite each other.

The machineman returned to his cooking. "So, whaddya want? We have meat loaf, meat loaf, and – here's the most exciting part – MEAT LOAF!" Starfire clapped joyously as if it was the best news she had heard all week.

"Joy," Robin mumbled sarcastically and sighed. Raven raised an eyebrow. If the leader sighed any further Raven could swear he was going to become an old man. "Whatever, Cy. You better hurry before BB gets up."

Cyborg beamed. "He ain't gonna wake up till noon, so we got a few hours. He – "

"NOOOOOOO!" Raven jumped in her chair as BB's shriek filled the hall. He zipped past the table and attempted to headbutt Cyborg, who had wisely placed a pan right in front of his chest to deflect the changeling.

BB collapsed on the ground, hands clutching his head in pain. "How could you…. Killing poor animals… what did they do to you…. Evil meat eating machineman…. One day when dinos start eating you you'll get a taste of the poor animals' pain…" he moaned, banging his head on the floor repeatedly. Raven winced as she imagined the scarce brain cells in Beast Boy's head depleting.

Ignoring BB, Robin looked up as if he had just remembered something. "Oh yeah, Cy, how's Raven's new room going?"

BB had reverted to mourning in front of a plate of meat loaf, lying prostrate on the ground as he wept sorrowfully.

"Pretty good, actually, it'll be done by today. Just give me a coupla hours and Raven can move in."

"Good, then - "

"Which pitiful animal is this?" BB asked loudly between tears, interrupting their conversation.

"It's beef," Robin said absently. He turned back to Cyborg. "Then we'll do a bit of training first and give you some time. We need it up as soon as – "

"O PITIFUL COW! WHAT A DIFFICULT LIFE YOU HAVE LIVED!"

" – possible. I bet you've noticed Jinx has become pretty stro – "

"YOUR TRAGIC STORY SHALL BE REMEMBERED FOR ETERNITY!"

" –ng. I don't know what Slade has been doing, but things don't look too goo – "

"MAY YOUR SWEET AND MUSICAL MOOS BE OUR GUIDING MELODY IN THE FACE OF HARDSHIPS!"

" – d for us right now. We can't underestimate the H.I.V.E any longer. If Jinx has improved to this standard, who knows what the rest are capable o – "

"THE BEAUTIFUL PATTERNS OF BLACK AND WHITE ON YOUR COAT SHALL REMIND US OF THE BEAUTY OF NATURE… and… and… LIFE ITSELF! Wait, you were a black and white cow right?"

"- f. I don't want to have a super powerful Gizmo or Cinderblock chasing our asses. It seems Slade isn't going to leave us alone this ti – "

"MAY YOUR FOUR HOOVES REMIND US OF OUR INFERIORITY BECAUSE WE WALK ON ONLY TWO SHAMFUL LIMBS!"

" – me. I need to get Raven ready, too. She lacks experience. If we can get her psychomotor skills up, we could prevent them from getting away that easi – "

"MAY YOUR NOSE RING REMIND US OF THE INFERIORITY OF OUR FASHION TRENDS! "

"-ly. And she could be really helpful in handling Cinderblock because of his siz – "

"MAY YOUR – "

"- e. FOR GOD'S SAKE WOULD YOU SHUT THE HELL UP?" Robin thundered.

BB complied, if not reluctantly. An angry Robin was a scary Robin. Closing his eyes, he turned his head away dramatically as he pushed the plate of meat loaf aside. "Farewell, dear friend," he said mournfully. "Heaven has greener pastures for you to graze on."

"Go make yourself tofu or something," Robin seethed. "One more chant from you and I'll – "

"Spank me on my bottom?" BB asked, eyes glinting maliciously. He turned and wiggled his backside at the leader. "Bring it on, mama!"

Robin responded with a kick which sent Beast Boy flying to the other side of the hall. "You didn't need to spank it so hard," BB complained, unglamorously rubbing his bottom with one hand.

Starfire giggled. "Dear friends, is spanking-of-the-bottom a human hobby?"

There was a moment of silence. "Dude, that just sounds wrong," Beast Boy replied uncomfortably. As everyone else apart from Starfire turned to glare at him, he quickly shuffled towards the kitchen counter, muttering, "Okay relax, I'll just mind my own business now and make my tofu… Didn't need to overreact man… is that how you guys treat your friend? Meanies… just out to bully the sex god… don't even give two hoots about my feelings…"

Robin cleared his throat. "That aside, we'll need to explain some things to Raven."

Raven looked at him questioningly. _Some things…?_

Robin turned to look at her, amused. "Well, since you claim you have no idea who Slade is and what he does, don't you think we should give you an introduction?"

"Oh great," Cyborg moaned. "Another let's-get-to-know-Slade-better lessons. Seriously, Robin, you are such a stalker."

"Good boy," Beast Boy said cheerfully, clapping Robin on the shoulder encouragingly. Robin wisely ignored the two.

* * *

Gizmo sat forlornly on a crate, his legs folded up to his chest. He was in deep thought. _Very _deep thought.

Jinx entered the room, Mammoth thumping clumsily behind her. He had some trouble getting in through the human-sized door, but he didn't complain because that was a problem he had already gotten used to. Being large came with its advantages. Firstly, he usually scared opponents off before actually fighting them. And secondly, he didn't need to rack his brains to say really smart things because his scary build made it such that few people lasted more than 10 seconds in his presence to listen to what he had to say. During battle, the longest word he needed to say was "aaarrrrghhhhh".

"A penny for your unwise thoughts, Gizmo?" Jinx asked in her always-patronizing tone.

"You bloody well give me a dollar," Gizmo scowled. "I'm _contemplating_ here."

"Wow, _contemplation_!"

"Shuddup," Gizmo growled. Or at least he tried to. A young boy growling sounded a bit like a baby gorilla attempting to sound cool.

"So what are you _contemplating_ about?"

Gizmo gave a dramatic pause. "Whether I should grow some hair."

Mammoth blinked. "On your head?"

"No, moron, on my armpits." Gizmo replied sarcastically. "Of course my head! Are you retarded or something?"

"No, I don't think so," Mammoth said innocently.

"What's the problem with being bald?" Jinx asked.

"Nothing, just…" Gizmo trailed off. He couldn't find words to explain his bald predicament. "It's just… uncool." He finished lamely.

"Uh huh. I'm sure." Jinx went back to studying her nails.

"No, really! It's just something I want to do, alright? What business is it of yours?"

Before Jinx could come back with another witty retort, Mammoth interrupted. "There's loads of things I want to do too."

Both Jinx and Gizmo gave him flat stares. It didn't seem to deter him from talking. "I'm serious. I've always wanted to do stuff Slade never lets us do. Like…"

"Like?"

"Like riding on a carousel."

His confession was greeted by flatter stares. "That was so dumb I can't even bring myself to laugh," Jinx muttered.

Gizmo cleared his throat. His eyes glinted with mischief. "Well, what I really want to do now is rob a bank, beat up a few dudes – "

"Ride a carousel," Mammoth said helpfully.

" – hack into Facebook accounts, throw cans at an old lady – "

"Ride a carousel too," Mammoth contributed.

" – give some cats rotten apples – "

"Riding a carousel is good." Mammoth said proudly.

" – and beat the crap out of the bloody Teen Titans."

"And ride a carousel?"

"Shut up."

* * *

As Robin went on about Slade, Raven tried to remember all the crimes that Slade had committed just in case. However, even her demoness brain couldn't keep up. What she found strange was that until now, Robin hadn't shown her a photo of the villain. At the very least, she needed a face to put his name to, didn't she? The other titans were lounging on the sofa, yawning as obviously as they could to put their point across. Unfortunately, Robin was having none of that.

"And here we have a photo of Slade." Robin flicked something on the control he was holding, and out came the picture of the villain.

Raven froze. This _couldn't_ be. While the photo was blurred, she could vaguely make out the masked man who had taken her captive on her first days on earth.

The new dustbin (which had replaced the old one) exploded.

Her face caught Robin's attention. "What's wrong?" he asked warily, studying the demoness. Hadn't she said before that she didn't know who Slade was?

Raven pointed a trembling finger at the photo. "It's him," she breathed. "I can't believe it. _He's _Slade."

Beast Boy lifted his drooping head, eyes alert. "Oh my god, Raven, please don't go all spazzy on us. You're scaring me, man."

Robin walked forward and grabbed Raven by the shoulders. "What about him? What did he do to you?" His eyes burned with a wild… ferocity.

Raven struggled to calm herself down. "He kidnapped me when I first came here."

Starfire gasped in horror. "Kidnapped you, friend Raven?"

Raven sighed. Taking a deep breath, she turned around to face the titans. "This is going to take a while," she said. "It's time you guys know about my background too."

* * *

When Raven finished, she was greeted by total silence. She didn't know what to make of it. Was it stunned silence or murderous silence? She couldn't tell based on the titans' faces.

Beast Boy spoke up. "So you are a demon? From some island called Azar?"

"Azarath. It's not an island."

"And you've got a father called Triangle?"

"Trigon."

"And Slade kidnapped you and went all paedophile over you. Then you escaped and came across the tower."

Raven shifted uncomfortably under everyone's gaze. "Yeah, you can put it that way."

Robin tapped his lips thoughtfully. "And you sought protection under the guise of a maid."

Raven winced. He sounded like she had committed a crime. She nodded her head numbly.

"Wait, stop there." Cyborg lifted a hand. "If she wasn't the real maid, where did the real one go?"

His question was met by silence. "Now, that is indeed an excellent question, friend Cyborg," Starfire said.

Robin waved the question aside. "That isn't the point right now. The thing is whatever Raven has just said just proves that Slade put her here as bait." His eyes became cold and calculating. Raven looked at him, and did a sense of _hurt_ just creep into her heart? After all those months, he still saw her as a pawn to be used to draw Slade. Quickly, she pushed the emotion away. Hurt wasn't something a demoness felt.

"So what are we going to do now?" Cyborg asked.

"Nothing," Robin replied firmly. The titans looked at him questioningly. He set his jaw determinedly. "Slade doesn't know that we have found out his connections to Raven. If we start on anything right now, it's just going to alert him. The ball's in his court now."

"But you know he's definitely up to something," Cyborg protested. "What if he - "

"It isn't a matter of what he'll do, but when he'll do it." Robin interjected smoothly. "The best thing to do now is wait and see. I'll stay near to Raven to make sure he doesn't try anything funny. Titans, I need you guys to be alert at all times." He paused. "Cyborg, you don't need to get Raven's room up so fast. She can stay in my room until we are sure that Slade won't try anything with her."

_Oh no no no no no. That's the last thing I want. _Raven shook her head vigorously. "It's okay, I'll sleep on the sofa like I always do – "

"Not in a chance." Robin cut in, switching off the projector. "We've lost enough time talking about this. Raven, follow me. We're going to start training."

Raven followed Robin unwillingly towards the large doors. She didn't know what was awaiting her for the next few months of her life.


	12. A hearttoheart talk

**Author's Note: I have nothing against Gollum or Gimli from LOTR. **

**

* * *

**

_**A few months later**_

She was running. Everything passed her in a blur, and she allowed her instincts to tell her which direction to run towards. Was he still chasing her?

She risked a glance to the back, and her heart pounded frantically in her chest. There he was, running effortlessly, metal heels clicking softly on the sidewalk. He was going to keep up with her soon.

No, she couldn't let this happen. She _wouldn't_ let this happen.

She took off from the ground, flying upwards towards the top of the nearest building. He shouldn't be able to get her at this height. And anyway, she needed a good look of the city. It was impossible to try teleporting to a place she didn't even know.

She weaved between tall buildings, keeping a lookout for her attacker. He was nowhere to be seen. Heaving a sigh of relief, she allowed herself to descend in a narrow and dark alley. She leaned against the wall for support in her exhaustion, her breath coming in large gasps. It was high time she found a place to stay while she was still on this hostile planet. Maybe a large tree, or a cave, or…

A metal hand shot out from the shadows, clapping over her mouth. Fear shot through her, paralysing her whole body. She could feel his warm breath against her neck, sinister and deadly. "Caught you, Raven dear," his raspy voice rang in her ears. "You're it."

As he dragged her into nothingness, she didn't even have a chance to scream.

* * *

Raven shot up, panting. She needed to meditate. Now. Pulling up her hood, she scrambled out of the bed, trying to make as little sound as possible. As she did so, a dark figure moved suddenly on the other side of the room, producing a strange metal rasping sound. Raven stopped in her movements, her hand shooting out to flick the light switch on the nearby wall.

Robin stood alert, his bo-staff drawn and ready. As always, he only wore a pair of baggy pants and no top, and Raven had to force herself to avert her eyes from his ridiculous 6-pack. Or maybe it was an 8-pack. She didn't want to count. "What is it?" Robin asked tensely, looking around the room warily as he searched for an unseen enemy.

"By Azara – " Raven stopped herself, before glaring at him and continuing her exclamation. "You sleep with your staff?"

"Always." Robin frowned. "What's the problem?"

"Nothing," Raven said a bit too monotonously.

The leader raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Nothing?"

Raven sighed. Nothing seemed to get past Robin nowadays. "I just… had a nightmare."

Robin relaxed. "A nightmare? About who?"

"Slade." Raven replied honestly. There was no point in holding back about what she had dreamt, and strangely she yearned to tell somebody about her problems. It was taxing having to keep her issues all to herself, and telling Robin had lifted a large burden from her shoulders. Recently, she had actually been able to strike up a normal conversation with the leader. She considered that a large improvement.

Well, to put it honestly, he was the _only_ one she could talk to. Cyborg was always busy fixing up machines, Starfire had an extremely limited understanding of what Raven tried to tell her, and for Beast Boy, well. Let's just say that he was practically incapable of normal conversation. Ducks and pizza usually found their way into the conversation after a short duration of 20 seconds.

"What about Slade?" Worry laced Robin's tone. Raven gave a little start. Worry? For _her?_ Now that was something new.

She did her best to keep her voice void of emotion. "I was just reliving the day I came here. The nightmares keep coming, these days." She rubbed her temples. "I don't know how or why, to be honest. Sometimes they last for just a while, yet at other times they can drag on and on until I wake up. And then there are times when I dream about encounters with Slade I have never had before. Usually it's me fighting him in some darkened place, at other times he's just taunting me over and over again. During those dreams I actually _knew_ Slade inside out, and there's always this burning hatred in me every time I fight him. It felt like he was an enemy that I had been desperately fighting for the majority of my life."

As she talked, she realised Robin was giving her a strange look. Even with his mask on, Raven could tell from that expression that he seemed to know something. "What?" she asked warily. "Did I grow an extra eye? Don't worry about that, Trigon _is _my father after al - "

"No, not about that. It's nothing." Robin replied a bit too quickly. The worry in his tone had grown tenfold somehow. What was wrong with him?

Raven frowned. "Beast Boy would probably believe you but I don't. Was it something I said?"

The leader slumped. "It's not _exactly_ something you said, just more like something I realised."

"Get on with it."

Robin studied her for a moment. "Those unfamiliar dreams you had," he started quietly. "About fighting Slade. Were you using your powers?"

"Now that I think of it, no. In fact, I don't even remember _knowing_ that my powers were available then."

"So you fought in hand-to-hand combat."

"Something like that, yes. Wait, I do remember having a long weapon, something like a staf –" Raven stopped immediately as she realized what the leader was worried about. "Oh, _shit._"

"Oh shit indeed." Robin replied, ruffling his hair with a hand absently.

Raven spoke slowly. "So those dreams were – "

"Mine, yeah. You don't remember encountering Slade in those ways before because you _didn't._ You were dreaming _my_ dreams."

"But… why?"

"That's a question I should be asking you."

Raven felt a flash of indignation. However, it was instantly buried by feelings of sympathy and… concern? She had only lasted a few months with these dreams and already it was difficult trying to maintain her sanity. What about him? He wasn't a demon like she was; he didn't have the ability to keep his emotions stable just by meditating. He had been living with these dreams for the majority of his _life._

Suddenly, she felt like she knew nothing about Robin at all, despite the months she had been with the titans.

She didn't realise that she was staring at the leader until he glared at her. "Stop looking at me like that," he snapped, fidgeting uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry." Raven paused. She didn't know what to say. "I didn't know you had to deal with all this for so long."

"Don't worry. I'm used to it." Robin looked away, before continuing. "I don't need anyone to pity me."

"I'm not pitying you." Raven said quietly. "I'm just saying that you don't deserve to have to handle all this alone. Trust me, I know what it's like to have to face things by yourself, but you can't keep on doing this forever. You don't look like you will suffer from a mental breakdown, but if you don't confide in somebody soon it's going to eat you from the inside."

Robin opened his mouth as if to come out with a retort, but after a while he closed it and his hard expression softened. "You've got a point there," he admitted. Then he gave a little smirk. "So who exactly should I confide to? You know better than anyone else that the others are a bit difficult to talk to, save Cyborg, who doesn't really have time to listen."

It was Raven's turn to shift uncomfortably. She had an answer, but it was quite ridiculous. No, scratch that. It was _overly _ridiculous.

However, judging from Robin's face, she knew he could tell what her answer would be.

"You?" the leader asked, raising his eyebrows. "Not like I have anything against you, but you do realize that I can't - "

"Trust me?" Raven asked angrily. She suddenly felt so angry and so hurt. All her pent up emotions started to flood out. It was difficult just to make sure she didn't break anything with her powers.

"No, that's not it." Robin said quietly. "Damn it, Raven, but that's not it."

Before Raven could reply, Robin continued. "I've been trying to convince myself that you're a part of Slade's team, but I admit it's… it's difficult. I've even gone to the extent to rooming with you, but it just proves to me that you're no Terra. I guess someone up there has something against me." He smiled wryly. "However, it's even harder for me to think of you as a regular Titan, given that Slade already has you in his plans. I want to be prepared for any bomb he may drop on us – figuratively speaking – and that includes your possible betrayal. You may have no intention of doing anything to us as of now, but Slade's mind games can really change a person."

"Is that what he did to you?"

Robin smiled bitterly. "Something like that. He made me turn on the titans before. It's that bad."

The leader sat down on the bed, hands clasped between his knees. "So you see, it's not that I don't trust you at all. I do, no matter how much I hate it, but I can't let my guard down too. It works both ways." He paused. "I hope you can understand that."

Raven gave a little smile. She felt pleasantly warm on the inside at his revelation. What _was_ this weird feeling? She tried to brush it away, but she might as well have tried to prevent Beast Boy from eating tofu. The feeling stayed stubbornly. "Yeah, I guess I can," she concluded.

"Good."

"Yup."

"Awesome."

"Mmhmm."

The two sat in awkward silence. Then Robin spoke up. "So, just now you were talking about confiding in someone. Who do you confide to?"

"I'm a demoness." Raven said pointedly.

"Ah, good point."

* * *

Cyborg sat on his overly small chair, fingers tapping furiously on the keyboard. This was the first time he had gotten up so early, but the maid issue had been nagging at him for the whole night. He figured that he might as well solve the mystery of the missing maid rather than spend another sleepless night worrying about it.

He typed in the website of the maid agency again, ensuring that he got the spelling right. If the maid went missing, the best thing to do was to alert the maid agency itself. The large words "_SAND ISLE OWL'S MAID AGENCY_" popped up on the screen.

He clicked on every link he could find on the webpage, looking for a possible contact number he could reach. There were none. _What the hell?_ This was the first maid agency he had seen with no available contact numbers.

Well, it was also the one with the lowest prices.

Eyebrows furrowed, Cyborg gave up trying to look for any contact information, and leaned back in his chair resignedly. Now even the maid agency was giving him problems. This was annoying.

His eyes ran across his metal room. While he wasn't a Slade fanatic, Cyborg did have a few newspaper clippings on the supervillain pinned up. He referred to these articles when he was free. Robin didn't have to take on the burden of hunting Slade alone. If he had just _discussed_ with Cyborg, both of them would have been able to hunt down the villain by now. Cyborg sighed. What a pain.

He got up and headed towards one of the newest articles on the wall. It was about another bank Slade had robbed just recently. Damn that guy. What was he spending on? Why did he need so much money? As far as the titans knew, Slade only needed to spend on wages for his underlings. And most of them could work solely on their hatred for the titans.

His eyes ran across the article down to the photograph of Slade. Underneath, the words 'Slade Wilson' were bolded and underlined. Slade Wilson, huh. Cyborg wondered if that was his true name. Maybe it wa –

Cyborg froze. _Slade Wilson._ Why did that strike something in him? He inched closer to the article, scrutinising the letters. And then it came to him. Dashing over to his table, he clumsily grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and started to scribble furiously.

When he was done, Cyborg stared at the paper disbelievingly. This couldn't be. How had nobody noticed? "Oh fuck," he breathed, grabbing the paper and running over to find Robin. He was going to need to know about this.

* * *

Both Robin and Raven gave a start as there were 3 loud successive knocks on the room door. Getting up hurriedly, Robin watched as the doors swished open and in ran Cyborg, panting as if he had just completed a ten kilometre run. "What is it?" Robin asked worriedly.

Cyborg handed over a piece of paper he was holding. "Look at this," he panted, pointing a metal finger at the words scribbled on top. "We hired a maid from Sand Isle Owl's Maid Agency, right? None of us noticed. Sand Isle Owl is an anagram. It's a _fucking _anagram."

Robin breathed in sharply. Raven scooted over to see what it was all about, and her breath caught. This couldn't be.

On the piece of paper, Cyborg had messily written down all the letters from the maid agency's name and rearranged them. Right underneath the name, he had spelled another name using the same letters: _SLADE WILSON_.

"You've got to be kidding me," Robin said angrily, flinging the paper on the ground.

"I wish I was," Cyborg replied. "He got us, man."

Raven spoke up nervously. "So he intentionally _chased _me here?"

The leader nodded. "That seems to be part of his plan. You told me he could find you wherever you went. But you managed to come to the Tower unhindered. That just means he _wanted _you to end up here in the first place."

Raven collapsed on the bed in shock. This couldn't be. This just couldn't be. After all this, she was just part of Slade's _plan_?

"What are we going to do now?" Cyborg asked, wiping off the perspiration on the human side of his face.

Robin set his jaw firmly. "We're going to inform BB and Star first. We'll worry about what we are going to do later."

* * *

Beast Boy and Starfire didn't take the news well. Beast Boy was furious at the fact that Slade had tarnished the name of owls by using them in the anagram, while Starfire nearly blasted a hole through the ceiling in her anger.

Raven sat at the side, trying her best to blend into the shadows. All this was her fault, and she knew it. She should have left the Tower when Robin told her to. Now all she was doing was bring unnecessary trouble onto the titans.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. The noise the titans were making died down at her apology. She frowned. She didn't think her whisper could be heard over the cacophony of voices.

"It is alright, friend Raven," Starfire said cheerfully, putting a comforting arm across Raven's shoulders. "You know it was not your fault. Slade has always been up to evil deeds."

"Yeah, don't worry about it, girl." BB said comfortingly. "We survived Terra. Now we're gonna help you." She saw a flash of pain cross his face at the mention of Terra. That was strange. What went on between the two?

The pain disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. "And anyway," he said proudly. "No one messes with us, man. We're gonna bitchslap Slade till he sees nothin' but Plutos circling his hard metal head."

"Pluto's not a planet anymore," Cyborg pointed out. BB ignored him.

Robin was the last to speak. "They're right. There's nothing to feel sorry for. Just treat it like you are _helping _bring Slade to us so we can finish him once and for all."

Raven gave a weak smile at their attempts to comfort her. But there was still a question left unanswered. "What are we going to do then?"

Robin thought for a while. "There's nothing we can do for now, actually. We don't know where he operates, and we don't know what he's going to do with you. Like I said before, it's his turn to move. This maid agency name thing just shows us that he's going to attack soon. The most we can do is prepare ourselves."

Sounds of agreement arose from the titans. Robin turned to Raven. "Well, you can always start gaining yourself some credentials now. I may still trust you, but you've got to prove that my trust was well-placed."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Did you know how unnecessarily sagely you just sounded?"

"Sagely?"

"You got that right, Gandalf."

"Whatever, lowly hobbit."

BB, having heard the exchange, decided to join in. "Sex God has been added to the conversation. Are we talking Lord of the Rings now? Cool! I'm totally Legolas' fanboy. In fact, I think he takes after me." He grinned broadly.

Robin snorted. "You remind me more of Gimli."

BB scowled. "No I do not! He's short, fat, and ugly!"

"Oh, then maybe Gollum. He's short _and _ugly. Fits your profile more."

"Sex God has left the conversation."

"I wonder why," Robin said innocently. Raven stifled the urge to laugh. As the rest of the titans begin to engage in verbal war again, she decided to join in.

She didn't know for how long she would be able to enjoy their company.


	13. Realizations

The feeling was overpowering nowadays.

Raven didn't know what it was. It wasn't fear. It wasn't anger. And it certainly wasn't calm. What scared her the most was that it always came at times when she didn't want to feel it.

And today was another one of those fucked up days when she had to deal with this emotion.

Stirring her tea irritably, the demoness paced the kitchen, eyebrows furrowed together in frustration. She was going to have a good talk with her inner selves and she was going to find out the culprit of this feeling.

"Something on your mind?"

Raven jumped, and spun to face a corner of the hall where a dark figure lounged against the wall. The feeling intensified. "This is going to be become a habit of yours," she said wryly, forcing a calm emotion on her face as she turned her back to him.

Robin materialised from the shadow in the corner. "Sorry."

"Do you do this all the time?"

"Do what?"

"Materialise unexpectedly from shadows and shock people."

Robin's lips turned upward. "Maybe. Anything wrong with it?"

"Nothing." Raven took a sip of tea. _Must…Stay…Calm._ "It's just that hiding in the shadows and scaring people should be my sort of thing." She gestured vaguely. "You know, demoness, roar, scary. People scream and die."

"I don't know much about demonesses, but roaring is more of a lion thing." The smile became wider. "And since I'm not screaming and dying, you must be doing a pretty lousy job. Shame on you."

"Funny," Raven replied sarcastically. _Fucking tea isn't helping._

At some point in that conversation, she had turned around and was staring at him again. Her eyes widened as he walked calmly over towards the kitchen counter where she was standing, a strange expression on his face. She started to fiddle with her tea cup self-consciously, the strange feeling welling up inside her.

Now he was leaning forward. _Oh my god._

She stood stock still, seemingly frozen in place as his face came ever so closer. She could hear his steady breathing, _feel _it, as the distance between them decreased ever so slowly.

"You have a pimple on your face," Robin finally said, drawing away, his face showing a slight hint of amusement. Raven gave a start, and nearly dropped her tea cup, embarrassment flooding her.

She wished an asteroid would just drop out of the sky right now and obliterate her.

And him.

"Pimple?"

"Yeah." He stretched out a finger and poked something on her forehead. "Right here. Next to your red jewel thing."

She was too embarrassed to move her finger and feel it. Quickly, she turned her back to him once more and started to wash the tea cup. "I see."

"You didn't finish your tea," Robin noted from behind her shoulder.

"Too strong for me," she replied lamely. She didn't tell him that she had only added 1 bag to about a litre of water before filling her cup.

"Mmm. Some strong tea it must be, for someone who downs 10 plus cans of beer readily."

"I did not…" Raven started indignantly, then decided against it. "I'll buy a weaker brand next time."

"Why are you always up so early anyway?" Robin asked, ruffling a hand through his hair and sitting on one of the chairs at the table.

"Habit." Raven threw a glance to the nearby window. It was still dark out there. She felt a little hint of satisfaction at the fact that she still hadn't lost the typical demoness trait of sleeping for just a few hours at night.

Robin nodded his head as if he understood. "I get that sometimes."

"Because of the nightmares?"

"Partly. I have an insomnia problem. It's gotten better these days, but I still get them occasionally."

Raven allowed herself a wry laugh. "I thought I took those dreams away from you."

"I don't think you did. I think you're just sharing them."

Raven nodded her head in silence. She understood. However, she didn't feel like replying him regarding that matter. Both of them had seemed to come to a silent consensus earlier that they wouldn't discuss the topic between themselves anymore or with the other titans, for reasons both of them couldn't explain. And anyway, telling the titans would just give them the wrong idea about the two again. Pairing Robin and Raven up seemed to be Beast Boy's recent past time. Apparently, sharing rooms was a 'scandalous but incredibly sexy idea' to the green titan.

"Tell me about your father." Robin said, studying the demoness. Raven gave a little start. Why the sudden change in topic?

"There's nothing to talk about regarding him," she said stonily, shifting her attention back to her tea cup.

Robin frowned. "No, I think there's a lot to talk about. You don't seem to like him very much – "

"You got that right," Raven muttered.

" – but if he is going to be a problem in your personal life, you should tell us – or at least me - about it."

"Why?"

"Because we're friends, aren't we?"

The question hit Raven like a hammer. Friends? Maybe. The titans _were_ her friends, but Robin… To put it simply, his long-lasting suspicion of her made her doubt that he truly saw her as a friend. "I hope we are," she whispered.

Robin kept silent for a while, before continuing. "After all," he said quietly. "You _do_ seem to have a strange habit of messing with my head. Dreaming my dreams. Knowing bits of my past."

Raven smiled sheepishly. She had admitted that to the leader in the past few weeks when they held their daily conversations. "And how does that link to my father?"

"It's just…" Robin seemed to struggle with words for a moment. "Since you happily butted into my head first, it's only fair if you let me into your head too." He finished lamely.

Both of them allowed the silence to fill the room, each engrossed in private thoughts.

Well, Raven didn't know about Robin, but her thoughts mainly revolved around the words "_fuck what should I say_". She realised that Robin seemed to have a strange habit of immediately sinking into silence in the middle of a conversation. She idly wondered if he ever allowed his thoughts to just _wait_. Like, _hi thought, sorry I'm currently busy talking to somebody so if you would just kindly give me a few minutes I'll entertain you once I'm done_.

Now she was thinking incoherently. Fantastic.

She heard Robin turn on his heels and walk out of the large doors, possibly back to his room. Raven allowed the large doors to hiss close behind him before letting out a huge breath, shoulders sagging in relief. It was so difficult to retain her composure in front of the leader, and to her dismay her heart was _fluttering._

Like bird and butterfly 'flutter'. Ew.

Raven didn't understand why people liked birds and butterflies so much. In her experiences on this planet, the only birds she actually got to see were chickens and ducks (courtesy of Beast Boy), and they weren't very pretty things. The chickens' heads were too small for their fat bodies, and all they did was cluck. What the hell, if she just put on some weight and started waddling around clucking would little kids like her too?

And don't let her get started on the ducks. Beast Boy was the perfect reason why she found ducks totally distasteful. It was literally his second identity. While people had spy movies, the titans had Beast Boy-the-double-identity-spy-wannabe.

And it wasn't like he liked playing all those spy action games. If he was playing alone, he was usually engrossed with the fucking Simpsons game.

Raven shook herself. This wasn't her. Thinking about random thoughts _wasn't _her. And how the hell did her thoughts wander from thinking about Robin to badmouthing Beast Boy? What in Azarath was going on?

She allowed her gaze to drift back to the closed hall doors. It _had_ to be him. She wasn't going to admit it, but for fuck's sake, it _was _him. It wasn't just today. _Every _damn day her heart would start pounding really fast after talking to him. Hell, simply waking up in the same room as him was torture. She usually found herself seeking pathetic refuge in ridiculously long meditations and truckloads of tea. Of course, it never worked.

Remembering something he said, she walked (she did _not_ run) towards the mirror over the sink and scrutinised her forehead over-consciously, pushing down her hood a bit too hurriedly.

Now she had come to two horrible realizations.

Number one: there was no pimple on her face.

Number two: she had fallen hopelessly and irrevocably in love with Robin.

She wished a troop of ducks would just arrive magically and kill her in a stampede. She would be needing BB's help on that.

* * *

Training was unexpectedly tough that day. Raven attributed it to her sore lack of sleep. And whose fault was it? She turned to give the leader a subtle glare.

Luckily for her, she wasn't the only one glaring at Robin. Apart from the ever-joyous Starfire, the other titans were less than happy that they had to spend the whole day attacking punching bags and running through ingeniously designed obstacle courses.

"C'mon man, this sucks!" Beast Boy wailed, weaving his way around the maze they were currently stuck in. "This is like the Hall of Mirrors in those amusement parks, minus the fun!"

"Fuck Hall of Mirrors," Cyborg panted. "This is as bad as getting lost in the men's toilet."

Beast Boy stopped in his tracks. There was a moment of silence, before he asked, "You actually get lost in the men's toilet?"

His question was greeted by a deadly glare from the machineman. "Better getting lost in the men's toilet than peeing somewhere in the forest together with your fucking animal friends," Cyborg muttered angrily.

"Hey! It's called fulfilling _nature's _call, alright? NATURE'S call! Not artificial-toilet's call!"

"Fuck your nature's call – "

"Shut up guys," Robin cut them off, scowling. "If you guys keep this up I'm going to double the difficulty level of this thing."

His threat was met by reluctant silence. Raven gave a little inward smile. The leader always seemed to manage to find some way to shut the two up when they needed shutting up.

Whoops, she nearly crashed into a wall.

"Keep your focus, Raven," Robin warned as he jumped over an artificial rock in the way. Raven grunted in response as she followed suit, leaping over the same rock with some difficulty. How did he manage to make everything look so simple?

She could feel perspiration dripping down her forehead as she dodged fake bullets and cartwheeled over random obstacles in the way. She hated this form of training, which the titans had not-so-affectionately named The Robin Way Of Fighting Bad Guys. It tested agility and reflexes, which Raven detested. Not because she lacked those traits, but more because she was forbidden from using her powers in this form of training.

_You'll need to train your physical fitness to be a match against Slade,_ Robin had said before.

Yeah, whatever. Her powers were definitely a thousand times more effective.

Amidst her bitter thoughts, Raven didn't notice the large wall looming above her. And when she did, she couldn't stop in time.

The last thing she heard was Robin shouting her name before she felt a solid impact between her head and the massive wall before everything turned black.

* * *

She awoke to the familiar sound of beeping machines and the even more familiar feel of wires strapped across her arms and legs. Shaking her head to brush off her dazed state, Raven managed to sit up with much difficulty. Her forehead was throbbing. As she lifted a careful hand to feel the spot, her fingers met the rough texture of a bandage wrapped around her head.

Oh, yeah, that's right. She had glamorously crashed into a wall during training.

There were voices outside. She could clearly recognise the cacophony the titans were making outside the door.

Strange, that it was an impossible feat for them to stay quiet even in cases where a patient was recovering next door.

She lay back down as slowly as she could, making as little noise as possible. She didn't want anyone to hear her. Privacy was something she really needed right now.

And eavesdropping a little wouldn't hurt.

Shifting such that her head was angled in a manner conducive for listening to the conversation outside, Raven closed her eyes. Maybe their voices could be a good lullaby for her. She _was _lacking sleep.

"Damn it, Rob, this is the main reason _why_ you should have scrapped the whole obstacle course thing when we told you to. That thing is nasty, man. She had a pretty bad concussion."

"That was simply because she was careless, Cy. How bad was it?"

"Imagine a god damn luggage bag falling on your head when you are standing in a plane."

"Oh."

"Yeah, bloody _oh._ If she wasn't a demon or whatever, she could be having a problem with sudden seizures for the rest of her life."

"What are these curious seizures, friend Cyborg?"

Beast Boy decided to be helpful. "Like when a fish jumps out of a fish tank and flops spastically on the ground."

Starfire gave a small '_eek_' and kept silent.

"BB, Star, go get some rest. We'll stay here," Robin instructed after a while. Raven could hear the two walking away a bit too willingly, the sound of their footsteps fading away. Lazy pigs.

There was another pause before Cyborg spoke up. "What do you think of her, Rob?"

"Me? When was that ever important?"

"It's just a question, mate. Don't need to get so worked up over it. It's just…" The machineman allowed his voice to fade away.

"Just?"

"Everyone can see things are different between you and her now. To be honest, it's a pretty positive change. But I'm not sure whether you, you know…"

"Whether I?"

"Feel differently about her."

"Seriously, Cy, if you are going to talk in circles we are never going to get anywhere with this conversation."

Cyborg ignored Robin's remark. "I just want to know when you are going to stop seeing her as a pawn to get Slade and start thinking of her as a real Titan."

His statement was given by silence. "I don't know what you are talking abo – "

"Seriously, Rob, if you are going to talk in circles we are never going to get anywhere with this conversation." Cyborg mimicked.

Robin gave a little sigh. "Fine, have it your way. I admit I don't see her as a real Titan."

"You are going to keep seeing her as a pawn?"

"Of course," Robin replied. "She's always been bait for Slade. When has that ever changed?"

Raven's heart dropped. When people described their hearts sinking like a stone, she never really understood the feeling. But now she did.

And it didn't sink like any other stone. To Raven, the stone was really massive.

So that was it. All his talk about being her friend, and putting trust in her, was all a lie. A lie to get her to trust him and reveal anything she might know about Slade. The honesty she sensed in his tone and his actions was a plain farce.

This hurt more than she had ever imagined. The friendship she had painstakingly built with the titans – with _him - _was nothing but a lie.

Slowly, she turned on her side, her back facing the door. She closed her eyes, tears welling up. This was it. Everything was an act. Everything.

She allowed her dreams to consume her, willing for everything to go away.

* * *

Cyborg was giving him the Look. Robin fidgeted uncomfortably under his friend's knowing stare, and he turned away irritably to face the door. It had been a long while since Robin had made that remark.

"You know I don't buy that," Cyborg said, leaning against the wall.

"Buy what?"

"Leave off the fake ignorant questions, will ya."

"They are _not _ignorant, and definitely _not _fake."

"You sure of that?"

Robin hesitated, then his shoulders sagged in defeat. "No," he admitted sullenly.

"No to what?"

"Fine. I don't see her as a pawn, alright? I don't want to use her. I trust her. Happy?"

"Not quite."

Robin groaned. "What do you want now?"

"You haven't told me everything yet." Cyborg gave him a knowing look again. Damn it, that guy knew how to draw secrets out of him.

Robin sighed. "No, I haven't," he confessed. He struggled for words. "She… intrigues me."

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "Intrigue? Speak English, dude."

"Intrigue _is_ English. Can you please stop getting influenced by BB's stupidity?"

"Sorry, my bad. Go on. What _intrigues_ you about her?"

Robin started to pace up and down the narrow hallway irritably. "I don't know, dammit. Everything? Yeah, close to everything. The way she talks as if she was raised by rocks. The way she frowns at everything. The way she drinks tea in the mornings. Her crazy 5 hour long meditations. Her damn cloak. Her – "

"Whoa, whoa, stop there. You seem like you are angry at her for some reason."

Robin stopped pacing and took a deep breath to calm himself down. "You're right. Sorry."

Cyborg's eyes twinkled mischievously. "You like her, don't you?"

Robin gave a start, and whirled around in shock. "No!" he exclaimed. "What the… no!"

"Come on, Rob. I may not have much prior dating experience, but even an idiot can tell you are just a _bit_ too interested in whatever she does. Hell, the only other person you have talked so much about is Slade."

"I'm _not_ interested in Slade." Robin muttered through gritted teeth.

"You're interested in _Raven_."

"Shut up. You aren't planning to make this any easier for me, are you?"

"Nope," Cyborg said cheerfully.

"Thanks."

"No problem."


	14. Uh Oh

Cyborg patted Robin on the shoulder in a friendly manner before walking past him towards the hall. "Get some sleep, buddy," the machineman called over his shoulder. "You shouldn't lose the sleep you are already lacking."

Robin rolled his eyes in response, turning to face the door of the room where Raven was resting. He listened as the doors hissed behind Cyborg, before letting out a huge sigh of relief.

_I like her?_ He shook his head hurriedly. It couldn't be. She was supposed to be nothing more than a plan to get Slade. Nothing more than that. But obviously things hadn't turned out the way they were supposed to be.

He peered through the window on the door. Raven was sleeping with her back turned to him, so he couldn't see her expression. Her head was bandaged up such that some of her hair was bunched up at the top. He watched as her form rose and fell rhythmically in her sleep.

Then, he realised he was smiling stupidly. Scowling, he turned away from the door. This was getting out of hand. _Everything_ was getting out of hand. He couldn't possibly be falling in love. Why? His brain struggled to find a reason. Well, the notion of falling in love was impossible. To add on, falling in love with _Raven_ was even more ridiculous.

Therein lay the problem. While it sounded utterly impossible to like Raven, it had indeed happened.

Stalking towards the bench leaning against the wall, Robin sank down and took a deep breath. Maybe he'll just… he'll just stay here. And, um, wait. Someone needed to be there when she awoke, anyway. Might as well be him. He did have to, er, chastise her for crashing into the wall anyway.

Satisfied with his excuse for remaining there, Robin closed his eyes and waited for the dreams to come.

* * *

Raven sat up in the bed, slowly pulling out the wires strapped across her chest and limbs. Sleep hadn't helped her at all, since her head was still pounding like she just had a hangover. And it didn't help at all that her heart still felt like a stone.

She scanned the room. The shadows at the door were gone, probably meaning that the rest had returned to their rooms for the day. That was probably better. She didn't want to see any of them as of now. Thoughts of Robin just stirred within her a mix of anger, frustration and disappointment. He was a lying and a manipulative bastard, that's what he was. To be honest, how different was he from Slade? Both of them handled things with ulterior motives.

And she wasn't going to start on how he had cruelly broken her heart with those words. She wanted to forget all of it and pretend she hadn't heard anything, but who was she kidding? Nothing changed the fact that she was never anything more than a pawn to draw Slade. She wasn't a friend.

Swinging her legs over the bed wearily, Raven trudged towards the door, pulling her hood over her head in the process. So her inner demons were right from the very start. She _was_ better off alone. She had been living a little fantasy of her own all this time, actually daring to harbour the hope that for once in her life, she wouldn't have to feel so alone.

She should have known.

Leaning her weight on the door to push it open, Raven stumbled outside, eyes blinking at the light that flooded the hallway. Her eyes had been too accustomed to darkness after lying like that in the darkened room for so long. Allowing her eyes to close momentarily, she stepped forward towards the doors that led to the main hall.

And crashed into a stone wall.

"Do you do this all the time?" Raven froze. The voice that she had been half-dreading and half-wanting to hear all day. It was tinged with amusement, like it always was when she embarrassed herself. Opening her eyes quickly, she looked up to come face to face with the stone wall which was Robin.

"Do what?" she asked stupidly.

"Crash into stuff. You crashing into a wall during training was, as far as I can recall, not too distant a memory."

Something was different about the leader. His face was gaunt, like he hadn't slept for one whole night. If his hair could get any messier than it normally was, it did. To put it simply, Robin seemed… tired?

Just in that moment alone, Raven felt a pang of sympathy and concern for him. But it only lasted a fleeting moment. She was tired of having to worry about him. She was sick of caring so much. All she had been doing was wasting her efforts on someone who only meant to use her, much less _reciprocate_ her feelings.

Her tone hardened. "Anything wrong with it?"

To her annoyance, a weary smile appeared on the leader's face. "No. You know, this conversation is becoming strangely nostalgic."

Raven turned away. "If that's all you wanted to say, then I should be going."

"Wait." Raven stopped midstride. Robin had grabbed her arm in one swift motion, and as if burned, he quickly dropped it. She had to admit that there was something strange about him. Did he actually look… flustered?

Whatever. It wasn't her business anyway. She raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Are you feeling better?"

Raven's heart burned. And here comes the pretence. "I'm fine," she mumbled.

Obviously, Robin could tell something was wrong. "What's the matter? Are you sure you're okay?" He pulled off a glove and pressed a palm to her forehead, seemingly checking for a fever. "You managed to get some sleep, and you don't have a fever, but you don't sound good. Should I get Cyborg to – "

"No!" Raven yelled a bit too loudly, jerking away from his touch. "Just… leave me alone."

Robin let his hand down. "I'm afraid I can't do that." He adopted a business-like tone to hide the concern in his voice. "I _am_ the leader of this team, and so I _am_ responsible for the well-being of my team mates, if you can recall."

"Team mates?" Raven sneered. She hadn't meant for it to sound so….hurtful, but her anger had reached a new peak. "You can drop the pretence here. You were _never_ my leader, let alone my team mate."

Anger and confusion crept into Robin's voice. "What the hell's wrong with you? Did the crash mess up your brains or something?"

"MY BRAINS ARE FINE!" Raven shouted. "I'm totally fine! Thanks for your _concern!_ You can drop the act now!"

"My act? Are you insane?"

Raven laughed bitterly. "You thought you could hide it, couldn't you. You thought I would continue believing in your little lie about being my friend – "

"Raven – "

"You confide in me, you talk to me about my dreams, you keep going on about the friendship _shit_ – "

"What's wrong with you?"

" – You are far less human than I am. You are a manipulative – "

"Stop it."

" – arrogant, uncaring – "

"Raven."

" – inhumane, did I say arrogant? Okay, arrogant – "

"_Raven."_

" – bastard. I hate you a lot. A lot. I'll never believe you anymore, never in Azar – "

She was cut off because something had come into contact with her lips. She couldn't register what it was, but it felt strangely warm and pleasant.

And that was when she realised that Robin's face had come very close to hers. A bit _too _close.

_Oh my god, he's kissing me._ Raven stiffened. It wasn't the type of kiss where they ate each other's faces up like in the movies, but neither was it a peck. It was a deep but chaste kiss. The type that wanted to make Raven's legs buckle and turn into jelly. She felt strange tingles emerge from her head to her feet. If his hands weren't cupped around her shoulders gently, she would have collapsed there and then.

She realised that something was seriously wrong with all this. Just 10 minutes ago, she had been so angry at him. For what? She couldn't remember.

And then it came back. His lies, his betrayal. So this was another one of his acts. Everything flew back into her mind, and with a grunt, she pushed him away with both palms and gave him a hard slap across his left cheek.

Robin didn't seem to know what hit him. She could see a look of genuine shock plastered on his face, but he did not raise a hand to feel his cheek like all other normal slapped people usually did. _Why? He knew I would find out one day, didn't he?_

"You are so low," she seethed, pointing an accusing finger at him. "Lying to me was bad enough. And now you… you try to make me fall for you so that I'll let you use me again? You sick, _fucking _bastard."

His words came slow and uncertain. "I have no idea what you are talking about. Do I look like the type who goes around kissing people so that I can _use _them? Do you even know what crazy shit you are saying now?"

Raven laughed bitterly again. "Don't give me that bullshit. I know. I know what you've been planning from the very damn beginning. You kissed me - "

"Because I damn well like you."

Raven was stunned. She hadn't been expecting a full confession in that way. While it made her heart flutter, she knew it was all a lie. _Don't give in, Raven. He's fucking with your mind again._

"The very least you can do for me right now is _stop lying to me_," she said, glaring at the leader. "I'll probably hate you less."

Robin's tone grew frustrated. "If this is some kind of candid camera, Raven, you are doing a great job. You got me, alright? I'm fooled. Now can we stop this fucking game? Because honestly, it's not in the least bit funny."

"_You _stop your games!" Raven burst out. "All this time, you've been _using_ me! You, liking me? That's pure _bullshit_ and you know it. I'm tired of all this."

"Jesus, Raven, what the fuck are you saying?"

"I'm tired of all this shit, alright?" Raven shot back. "I shouldn't have come to this damned place to start with. I thought I could find shelter, _friends,_ here. I thought maybe this place could protect me from Slade." Tears were starting to form in her eyes. "I should have known. You, and Slade," She paused, then looked up to glare at Robin. "are no different."

Robin flinched visibly. Raven felt this sense of cruel satisfaction that she had managed to drive the nail home. Slowly, the softness that she had seen in his face when she first bumped into him vanished, and it was replaced by that cold, unfeeling face she had so often seen. And there was something else as well. A murderous expression.

In one swift motion, Robin had grabbed her shoulders and pushed her against the wall forcefully. It didn't hurt, but Raven still felt a stab of fear. "Never," he hissed. "Never compare me with Slade. I am _nothing_ like him."

He let her go as quickly as he had grabbed her. "Forget everything I did here. If it hurts you so much, then fine. If it's in your best interests, you can leave the Tower." He turned around, his back facing her as he strolled calmly to the door leading to the hall. "I won't stop you, and I'll make sure no one else stops you too." He stopped in his tracks for a while, as if he was about to say something, before shaking his head slightly and leaving the narrow hallway, the doors hissing shut behind him.

Raven didn't realise that she was crying, until she felt the warm tears pour down her cheeks and drip onto her leotard from her chin. She had it all. She thought she had it all. And she had hoped that maybe, just maybe, she could spend the rest of her life with the titans. And live the rest of her life liking that leader secretly, knowing that he was just a room away.

But all of it was gone now. It was never about her. It was all about catching Slade, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. She wondered if Starfire or Beast Boy had ever thought otherwise. Did they see her in the same way Robin did?

Was she _ever _important?

Back still to the wall, Raven sank down and buried her face between her knees, trembling. When the sobs came, they came in the multitudes. And when the soft weeping arrived, she couldn't control herself any longer.

For the first time in her life, Raven Roth allowed herself to cry.

* * *

Packing her bags was easier than she had imagined. After all, she had only arrived in a simple leotard and a cloak. Demonesses didn't need anything else in order to survive. To add on, she would definitely need to go light if she was going to be chased around by Slade again.

Sighing, she let her hood down and slung the light duffel bag around her shoulders. Beast Boy and Cyborg had bought her that bag just a few weeks ago, and she figured that it would be a waste if she didn't actually use it.

And she had to admit that it was very useful. While she did not want to be reminded of anything Titan which naturally reminded her of Robin, she didn't want to throw away those memories either. Beast Boy's jokes, Starfire's innocence and Cyborg's friendliness. How could she ever forget those?

She turned around and walked towards the large Titan doors. She figured it would be the most suitable to leave at this late hour, since everyone was probably asleep. It would make things easier for both her and them.

"Where are you going, friend Raven?" Raven jumped. Oh crap.

Starfire floated towards her from the hall doors. "Nothing," Raven said hurriedly. "Just…"

"Are you not supposed to be in friend Robin's room at this late hour?"

Raven slumped. "I was," she said sullenly. "I'm… I'm leaving now, Star."

"Leaving? Dear friend, where could you possibly go at this hour?"

Raven smiled at the concern in Starfire's voice. "I don't know," she admitted, then gave the pretty alien a weak smile. "Somewhere, I guess. I'll survive."

"Will you come back?"

"I… guess… not."

"Why?" Starfire asked worriedly. "Did friend Robin do something to anger you? If that's the case, I shall give him the drastic punishment of the paddling of the bottom!"

Raven waved her hands desperately. "No, it's not like that, Star." She didn't want to tell Starfire that Robin _was_ indeed the reason for her departure. It was just going to make things complicated. "I have issues of my own to deal with, okay? Staying here is just going to affect you and me."

"I do not understand."

"I don't expect you to," Raven said, patting Starfire's hand awkwardly in a reassuring gesture. "Just know that I'm doing this for the best." She paused. "Will you do me a small favour, Star?"

Starfire nodded eagerly. "Of course, friend Raven."

"Would you… tell the rest for me that I'm leaving to deal with my personal, um, problems?"

"I will."

"Thanks," Raven mustered a small grin. As she turned around to go back to the door, Starfire took a hold of her arm briefly.

"Raven," Starfire said softly.

"Hm?"

"I would like to tell you something. Friend Robin used to tell me something like this. I think you should listen to it too."

"Trust me, Star, I don't exactly want to hear anything that guy said right no – "

" 'Once a titan, always a titan.' I hope that we will always be friends, friend Raven."

Raven struggled to keep her composure. "I hope so too," she whispered. Then she walked out of the huge Titan doors that she half-knew she wouldn't be stepping through again.

* * *

Here she was again, walking in the darkness of the night. The moonlight used to be comforting for her, but now, it seemed to be mocking her. Mocking at her sad excuse of a life, probably.

However, she refused to look back. She didn't want to have to return to a life with no trust any longer. She was sick of it all. Sick of suspicion.

She realised she still had the bandage on her head, and it was giving her some nasty headaches. Frowning, she removed the bandage from her head and tossed it into the lake. _Sorry, Beast Boy. If your ducks become mutant animals with a million eyes please don't blame it on my demoness blood._

She settled down after walking a mile or so. She didn't want to fly. Walking had given her some time to think, although it was pretty useless thinking since she couldn't even remember what she was actually thinking about. She only knew that she was pretty tired, and she needed a good break.

A bed would have been good, one that smelt of Ro – _Take your head out of fantasyland, you stupid moron. _She patted the grass half-heartedly. This would make an acceptable bed.

Just as she was about to lie down, she heard a rustling in the bushes behind her. Titan instincts kicking in, she shot up, pulling up her hood and extending her arms in preparation for any ambush. She was grateful to the titans for improving her reflexes. It could hopefully last her a few more days without being captured by Slade.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she muttered, her hands glowing with a black aura. Warily, she walked towards the bush that had made the noise earlier. Something was there. She just needed to get a little closer….

"Hello, dear," Slade's all-familiar raspy voice breathed against her neck. She didn't have time to whirl around.

Fear was the last emotion she felt before everything went black.


	15. Someone likes pizzas too

"She _what_?"

"Friend Raven said that she has to deal with the personal of her problems and that she does not make the guess that she will return."

Beast Boy visibly slumped in the couch as Starfire announced Raven's departure, her gaze sad and melancholy. He threw his hands up in exasperation. "This is insane, man, she's pulling off the whole I-am-leaving-for-the-better-of-the-whole-world shit! I thought that only happens in the movies!" he wailed.

Cyborg stood quietly, back leaning against the sofa, head bowed as he studied his robotic hand. "We have to ask Rob about this. For all we know – " He was cut off by the loud hiss of the large doors opening. In came Robin, hands stuffed in his pockets as he strolled calmly into the hall.

Something was wrong. Cyborg didn't have to be a genius to figure that out. Robin's walk was too robotic (the irony) and his face was too emotionless. He watched as the leader walked to the kitchen table and poured himself a glass of water, before turning around to look at his staring team mates.

"What's wrong?" His voice was odd.

"She left, Rob." Cyborg said carefully, watching for the leader's reaction.

Robin's hand gripped the glass more tightly, but his face betrayed no expression. He nodded his head slightly, suddenly interested in the glass of water he was holding. As if he was choosing his words, his reply was slow and cautious. "I see. What happened?"

Cyborg looked at the leader knowingly. There wasn't anything Robin could hide from him. For all those years the titans had been together, Cyborg had picked up a few things about the leader that no one else could be bothered to pay attention to. Robin was undoubtedly the master of keeping things from people, but Cyborg was not one of those people. The machineman gave a grim smile. "That's a question you should ask yourself."

Beast Boy chose the wrong time to laugh nervously, obviously trying in vain to ease the sudden tension between the two. "Ha ha ha, you know, that really, you know, sounds like, you know, what Optimus Prime said to, you know, Megatron in that Transformers movie. Megatron goes something like, _Why throw away your life so recklessly? _And then Prime is like, _That's a question you should ask yourself, Megatron,_ then Megatron is like _I have waited an eternity for this. It's over, Prime,_ then Prime is like…"

His words withered away as everyone, including Starfire, shot him a glare which would have melted him had he not realised his situation and stopped.

Robin's finger stopped making circles on the glass, and he pushed the glass away dismissively. "What makes you think I know anything?"

"Well, maybe the fact that you don't even _seem _shocked about it."

Robin shook his head stubbornly, refusing to reply to that remark. Cyborg threw his hands up in the air frustratedly. "Come on, Rob, don't go all I-don't-know-anything on me again. Even BB could tell you're lying. What happened between the two of you?"

Beast Boy muttered, "Well, I couldn't tell, but thanks for the compliment, I kind of know now,", but he was ignored yet again. He frowned. This was going to become a disturbing titan habit soon.

There was a moment of silence before Robin spoke up. "Nothing significant."

There was a sudden flash of colour, and Cyborg only managed to blink before he saw Starfire standing right in front of Robin. With a mighty heave, she had grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the wall, her eyes ablaze.

Like literally ablaze. Cyborg and Beast Boy flinched simultaneously, and Beast Boy commenced to mutter a prayer for Robin's life.

Surprisingly, Starfire didn't shoot any star bolts at him, and neither did she beat him up like the others thought she would. Both of them remained in that position awkwardly, but both refused to budge. Starfire held the leader firmly against the wall, her arm on his collar, and Robin himself just stared back coldly and calmly, not attempting to push her away.

"Is this what you have wished for, friend Robin?" Starfire said through gritted teeth, her eyes still blazing green. "Did you wish for her to disappear and then make the pretence that nothing has happened?"

"Now, now, Star, we can talk this out normally, like adults. Okay? Adults. Not children. Adults. Don't do this man, you're creeping me out, seriously." Beast Boy said weakly, attempting to separate the two titans. Cyborg, on the other hand, did not move from his relaxed position against the wall. It was interesting to see Starfire in such a temper for the first time, and well, they really needed Robin to open up.

"No," Robin said quietly. "If she chose to leave on her own accord, then there's nothing I – we, can do about it."

"And why did she make the decision to leave?"

Robin gave a bitter laugh. "Beats me."

Starfire's voice took on a confused tone. "What is beating you, friend Robin?"

"Nothing is beating me right now, but you are holding me in a very painful position against the wall." Robin snapped.

Starfire released him guiltily, and he flexed his sore arm irritably. Ruffling a hand through his hair, he sighed. "Sit down, guys," he said. "I'll tell you what happened, and we will be done with all this, okay?"

"Why are you always making us sit down like school kids?" Beast Boy complained, pouting. "Raven did that to us too. And when I want to do the same thing, you never let me!"

"BB, just… don't. Please."

* * *

Raven awoke to the smell of… perfume. It was definitely perfume. She felt slightly woozy, like someone had just drugged her.

Okay, she was pretty sure someone did just drug her.

She extended an arm weakly, attempting to use her powers, but the familiar black aura didn't appear no matter how hard she tried. Whatever she had been given was seriously messing with her emotions, and to her despair she couldn't seem to get the peace and calm needed when she wanted to use her powers.

Scanning her surroundings blearily, Raven struggled to sit up. She realised that both her hands were bound together painfully in a tight rope, and her legs were treated in the same way. Her mouth was gagged with a large rag, and she could only make small sounds with her throat. She was in… a cell? A strange cell. It had gated walls made of iron, just like those jails she had seen before, but this... was a _cage._ Oh, a cage, yeah, right, that's pretty normal, it's not like she hasn't seen one before, she kind of expected to be put in one herself, doesn't feel too bad after all, like, it's just a little dark and all, but never mind about that, she is a demoness who loves the dark, so it's pretty good, everything is going great, yup, everything's fine…

_SHIT. SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. _

Desperately, she fell heavily onto her stomach and started to wriggle towards the nearest wall, ignoring the scrapes and bruises she managed to accumulate on her legs and other parts of her limbs exposed by her slightly ripped leotard. Pushing herself up painfully against the wall, Raven tried to think, panting laboriously. This was bad. This was pretty bad.

She tried to summon her powers, but they refused to come to her, instead preferring to shy away from her touch every time she attempted to reach them. Her emotions were in terrible disarray; anxiety and desperation had pushed away every sense of calm she had.

Being left with no choice, Raven crawled as fast as she could to the locked gate of her cell, and rammed her bound fists into the wall, grunting as loudly as she could. Maybe, somehow, if she could manage to use her strength to force the door open, she could, um, well… run? Maybe?

Collapsing on the floor in defeat, Raven looped her arms over her legs and buried her face between her knees. Okay. That settles it. She was going to need to be calm. Meditation would be her only hope now. Closing her eyes, she forced herself to sink into the abyss of peace and calm, and…

There was a sudden sound of the gates unlocking, and Raven's head shot up automatically to see her captor. She drew in breath sharply. In the doorway stood Jinx, her pink hair still radiant in the dark. Behind her stood a very small boy – a toddler? No, looked more like a kid – and a giant with a huge, animal-like face.

Seeing Raven's look of recognition, Jinx smiled in the scariest way possible. Or at least she tried to. The demoness had an expression that already made her hair stand. Irritably, she walked over and wrenched Raven's gag off, hissing, "Hello, Raven Roth. We meet again."

Raven scrunched her nose up at the overpowering smell of Jinx's perfume. So that was the reason for the smell of her cage. Jinx had been coming to visit a bit too often, it seemed.

The demoness returned Jinx's stare with a cool and emotionless gaze. Jinx flinched slightly. Of course, she had heard the stories about her creepy personality, but this was… really creepy. Looking away, she unceremoniously pushed the goth away and said, "So, we brought you here to make a deal with you."

The demoness didn't reply. Jinx whirled around angrily and held her by the collar again. "I would appreciate it if you answered me," she snarled, glaring at her prisoner angrily.

The answer was quiet, but cold all the same. "What does Slade want?"

Jinx smiled again. "Ah, now we're talking. It's pretty simple, you know. We got you into the Tower for a good reason. Your job was to turn against them and destroy them once and for all."

"That sounds like the most clichéd idea ever." Raven replied monotonously.

"Cliched? Never clichéd, just traditional." Jinx twirled a finger around one of Raven's purple locks. "You never know how effective the same plan may be. It's the plan everyone least expects."

Raven gave a bitter smile as she recalled the events of the past day. "You got that right," she muttered under her breath.

Jinx raised an eyebrow questioningly. "What right?"

Raven fixed the witch and her two cronies with a fearsome glare. "Congratulations. Robi – The titans don't trust me at all, they never did. Happy? Now that you have successfully completed your grand mission, can I go now?"

Jinx shook her head, tutting disapprovingly. "Oh, that isn't enough, dear Raven. We haven't done the destroying part yet."

Raven raised her eyebrows in alarm. She didn't mean to…

"Oh yes, Roth, oh yes," Jinx said triumphantly. "We propose that you join us, and help us in our noble cause of defeating the titans and killing them off once and for all."

"Noble," Gizmo scoffed. "We don't do _noble_."

"What's nobble?" Mammoth asked innocently.

"It's noble. Now shut up," Jinx fired back at the two. She returned to stare at Raven. "What do you think?"

Raven looked at her. Maybe all this was worth it. Maybe she could get revenge on that asshole who used and manipulated her, and, and… treat him to a good lesson. If there was one thing a demoness hated the most, it was being manipulated.

Demoness don't get manipulated. They manipulate people.

And then she thought of the titans. She said she hated Robin, but she loved him too. Damn her for it, but she liked him so much it was close to impossible. And the rest. She could never forget everything she went through with the first few friends she had made in her life. They were company. They were her _friends._ Even if they were faking it, it was a pretty good act. They deserved credit for that.

Hardening her heart, Raven made her decision.

* * *

There was silence as the titans registered Robin's words. Beast Boy stood up slowly, his eyes furrowed in deep thought. He started to pace around the hall, hands clasped behind his back like a scholar. "Okay, so let me get this right," he started, lifting a finger to push up invisible glasses. "Raven said she heard you say something about using her, you don't remember doing it, you guys got into a fight – "

"_She _got into a fight with _me_," Robin corrected irritably.

"You confessed – although I think that's probably the shittiest confession ever –, she didn't believe you, then in a fit of anger she compared you to your boyfriend Slade – "

"He's _not_ my damn boyfriend, thank you very much."

"You got really pissed off slash frustrated slash furious, then in your fit of anger you told her to leave."

"I said she was _free_ to leave, not _leave now _leave!"

"Sounds the same to me," Beast Boy said absently, studying his fingernails. He looked up at Robin, eyes shining brightly. "Well now, according to High Judge Slash Professor Slash Sex God Slash Duck Overlord Beast Boy, the court decrees that, you, Robin Whatever, is found guilty of 2 charges: One, going pissy on Raven, and two, making her leave with a broken heart!"

"Broken heart? Excuse me, as far as I can recall _she _was the one making me look like a dick in the room after _I_ confessed to her!"

"C'mon, man, we all know she totally had the hots for you – "

Robin waved the remark away. "Just shut it, will you? I'm in a bad mood as it is already."

The titans kept silent. Robin took a deep breath, then fell onto the sofa beside Beast Boy. "Look, let's not linger on this anymore, alright? She's gone, okay? Done deal. If she wanted to go, so be it. It's her choice. Not our problem anymore."

"She was your friend." Starfire said quietly. "We know you, friend Robin. You would not commit the forsaking of your friends."

"Aaaaaand you like her," Beast Boy quipped.

Robin stubbornly stayed quiet. He closed his eyes, before speaking up again. "Look, she was the one who chose to leave, alright? There's nothing I can do about it. So what if I care for her? Is she going to come back? And to be honest, I don't even know where the hell she went. For all we know she has gone back to her planet and – "

He was cut off by a loud alarm blaring through the Tower. He shot up, bo-staff in hand, ready to shout the two extremely familiar words that he had been shouting half his life. Then he froze. That wasn't a sound he had been expecting. It had a weird whirring sound, and to his shock the large screen in the hall started to flicker to life, emitting suspicious spitting noises.

And Slade appeared, as recognizable as ever, his red eye gleaming evilly in the dark environment he was standing in. He had his hands clasped behind his back, and he walked calmly towards the camera, his figure becoming larger and more menacing.

Then he raised a metal finger and tapped the camera lens experimentally, before giving a little sniff of satisfaction. "Well well, hello titans. It's such a pleasure to meet you again."

Cyborg moaned. "Damn that Gizmo, this is like the millionth time he's fucked with my security system again!"

Robin stared at the screen wordlessly. There was a moment of silence before he responded, throwing his staff down in frustration and pointing angrily at the screen. "Look, I don't have the time for this bullshit alright? You've messed up my life enough as it is already, okay? I've got my own stuff to worry about right now, so if you don't mind would you please just leave me alone for once?"

Cyborg's eyes widened. Now that was new. The Robin he knew would never try to turn Slade away like that; in fact, he would have started grilling the villain with questions by now so that he could find some way to catch him. He kept quiet and allowed the conversation between the two archenemies to progress.

"Relax, relax, dear Robin. I am just being courteous enough to inform you that I have picked up the lost bird you abandoned."

"For the love of – " Robin froze. "Lost bird? You mean…"

"OH MY GODDESS A LOST BIRD!" Beast Boy wailed. "Was it a duck? Or perhaps a robin? No, a crow, maybe it's a crow, or a vulture, or – " He threw himself at the screen, attempting to pummel Slade's torso through the video. "I'LL KILL YOU! YOU MURDERER! YOU KIDNAPPER! YOU… YOU…. YOU CARNIVORE!"

Slade gave a low chuckle. "Not in that way, my dear greenling. My my, you haven't changed since we last met, have you? You seem to be, well, vertically intimidated by your fellow friends."

"DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME SHORT, YOU STUPID METAL LOSER – "

"_Raven_," Robin whispered in horror, cutting Beast Boy off. "You've got her, haven't you? She's the lost bird you were talking about."

Starfire gasped and Beast Boy immediately stopped sobbing. Cyborg stared at Slade, then at the leader in absolute shock. Slade had Raven? In such a short period of time? She had only left _yesterday_.

Slade laughed again. "Smart of you, Robin. I should have known that you would solve my riddles without me having to wait for too long. Well done."

"What have you done to her?" Robin snarled, his face menacing. Even Starfire had started to glare at the screen, her eyes glowing green and her hands starting to form balls of green light. Cyborg put a warning hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"Nothing, actually," Slade said disappointedly. "Seems like you did do something to make her leave the tower, but she seems to refuse to join me for some reason I cannot comprehend."

Robin looked down, his eyebrows furrowed together. "Let me see her," he said quietly.

Slade thought for a while, and nodded. "Very well, you may, if that would prolong your suffering." He motioned, and the camera panned towards a figure sitting slumped in a chair, her dark blue cloak immediately recognizable. Her hood was down, and all the titans could see was her violet hair strewn all over her face, her head hanging limply against her chest. Obvious bruises could be seen on her legs, and her leotard was badly shredded.

Robin suppressed the growl rising in his throat, forcing himself to keep calm. This wasn't the time to get lose his temper. If he showed any weakness, Slade would use it to his advantage, and Robin couldn't afford that. Not when Raven's life was at stake.

Forcing an emotionless expression on his face, Robin took his bo-staff into his hands again. "Name your location," he said calmly. "I know you want to use her to lure me somewhere. Cut the bullshit and spit it out."

Another laugh. "Good job, Robin. But aren't you wary that I'll prepare an ambush for you?"

"Of course I know that," Robin snapped. "Congrats, I'm happily walking into your trap. So just give me the address and make sure she's there. I'm coming for her."

"Oh, now?"

"Now."

* * *

**2 hours later**

Slade circled the now conscious demoness as she sat weakly in the chair, her hands and feet bound. He had decided not to gag her so that he could sadistically listen to her pleas for mercy, but unfortunately, the little bitch was having none of that.

Her eyes followed him as far as they would allow, those violet orbs fixated on his face as he paced in front of her. Still, she said nothing. She hadn't replied to any of the questions he had asked her, and the biggest reaction he had seen from her was the tightening of her fists when he mentioned that the titans were coming for her.

He decided to speak again before things got awkward. Awkwardness was the biggest no-no for a villain. Villains don't interrogate people awkwardly. They fucked with their victim's minds until the poor souls vomited out everything they knew apart from their stomach contents. "So, your Robin is late," he commented.

Raven didn't reply. Her fists curled into a ball again, but her face was as expressive as a rock. Well, at least it was progress.

"That's worrying," he sighed. "And I had everything set up for him already." He walked over to the large table where a whole pile of computers showed him the view from every surveillance camera around the building. They covered everywhere, so the titans couldn't possibly sneak in without him knowing. He had Gizmo to thank for that.

And he did install many booby traps that he had personally designed, because, well, watching people run into them foolishly was pretty fun.

There was no sign of the titans. Not a shadow, not a movement. He started to get impatient, tapping his fingers irritably on the metal desk. This wasn't normal. The titans were never late. Wait, cancel that. _Robin_ was never late. He knew they probably had something planned, but they couldn't have started planning already. He even had cameras on the rooftop and every secret passageway to the building.

There was a ringing of the doorbell. Yes, he had a doorbell. Glancing towards one of the small screens, he saw a nervous pizza deliveryman holding a stack of pizza boxes waiting outside, his finger hesitantly hovering around the doorbell to see if he had to press it again. Obviously the old warehouse was far from the place he had expected, and he was desperate to leave, shown by his constant fidgeting and fumbling with his yellow and red cap.

Slade felt a little better. If that stupid masked boy was going to make him wait any longer, he was going to have to miss dinner again. At least his pizza arrived on time.

He couldn't leave Raven alone in the room. He didn't want those 3 idiots to come into his personal lair to mess things up, because he knew they would if they had a chance to. He glanced at the nervous pizza boy, who had resorted to checking his watch nervously, hoping that the caller was just a prankster.

Well, he wasn't going to give the poor soul that luxury. He was a villain. A supervillain.

Smiling inwardly, he pressed one of the million buttons near the screens, and the front door swished open. He watched in satisfaction as the poor boy gave a start, and reluctantly scurried inside, watching his surroundings warily. "Just go straight to the main room, thanks," Slade announced into the microphone he had installed. The fellow gave another start, attempting to make a random turn somewhere. "No no, not the left, go straight, okay, turn right here, good, NO NO DON'T GO THERE, okay yes, make one left here then go the right then to the right again and DON'T GO STRAIGHT okay good I'm just opposite this door."

Obviously relieved, Pizza Boy knocked the door, and Slade opened it. "How much?" the villain asked good-naturedly. He didn't mention that he had no intention of paying the bill, because, well, rental was expensive.

And he could just kill the little loser anyway, once he had the pizza.

"Ten dollars please," the boy squeaked, looking down and refusing to look him in the eye out of fear. Slade smiled. He had that effect on people.

Then he stopped. He took a step closer to the boy and the boy quickly jumped back in fear, now suddenly interested in something on the floor, his hands nervously rubbing each other.

"Are you ripping me off?" Slade asked suspiciously. Inflation? No, it couldn't be. Different pizza? Nope, he had been ordering from the same pizza company for all these years and he had never eaten anything apart from a good Hawaiian. "Since when did pizzas get so expensive?"

The boy stopped fidgeting, and immediately, the frightened posture vanished as he looked up for the first time. Slade gasped, taking in the sight before him. He had never seen those eyes before, but he would always remember that grim mouth, drawn back tightly and pulled upwards at the side in a little smirk.

Robin threw off his red and yellow cap, pulling out a mask from his pocket calmly and slapping it onto his face. "Since now."


	16. Bishy Bashy

"Since now." Robin said calmly, ensuring that his mask was properly positioned over his eyes before pulling up his shirt ever so slightly to reveal his utility belt, which had been cleverly hidden under the huge, oversized clothing. In one swift motion, he had grabbed his steel bo-staff and was pointing it directly at Slade's face.

The villain got over his momentary shock and put his hands up in mock surrender. "You got me. I'm impressed."

Wordlessly, Robin pushed the staff forward, forcing Slade to backtrack into the room, using his heel to shut the door behind him. To be sure, he turned to lock it, ensuring that his staff was still trained on the villain's forehead. One wrong movement and a simple jab would knock his enemy unconscious. Robin's eyes scoured the room for the demoness, but it was a pretty large room, and due to the intentionally poor lighting the back of the room was hidden by shadows. He took note of the intensive surveillance Slade had done to his warehouse, giving the stacked screens a quick glance before moving his attention back to his opponent.

That was the good thing about masks. Your enemy never knew where you were looking unless you were stupid enough to move your head. It had the same effect as sunglasses, but obviously Robin had never entertained the thought of wearing sunglasses to fight, simply because it was totally unrealistic. There was a reason why Johnny Bravo always got his ass kicked.

He didn't let his impatience show. Slade was a professional at taking advantage of his opponent's potential weaknesses to gain the upper hand. Robin had learned it the hard way; his rashness and impulsivity had landed him in less than favourable positions against the villain many times before. He wasn't going to let the same thing happen again.

Sensing his silence, Slade gave a little laugh. "Speechless, eh? Are you so awed by my presence? We haven't managed to talk for such a long time. Don't you think you should do your old buddy a favour by saying a little hello?"

Robin gritted his teeth. He jabbed the bo-staff forward a little more, such that Slade had to take rapid steps to end up backing up against the nearby wall. So the villain had decided to play the taunting card. How clichéd.

"Where are your little friends, anyway? Don't you always come with your…" Slade raised two fingers on each hand and cocked them mockingly. "…'formidable team'? Don't tell me you've quarrelled with them and left to go all one-man army on me. I'll be sorely disappointed at your poor judgement."

Robin didn't say a word. Slade started to get impatient. What was the boy thinking? He had been so easy to read in their past encounters; by now he should be attacking him with all his might. But the boy showed no intention to start his attack. Instead, he was just standing there motionlessly, making no move to speak or act.

"You know, if you are not going to reply me, we will be standing here all night," Slade snapped irritably.

Robin's head moved up an inch, like he had just heard Slade. "Show me where she is," he said stonily, his face betraying no expression.

Slade smiled. Robin never let him down when it came to naivety and brashness. He always demanded something and expected Slade to give it to him willingly, and in the end Slade would enjoy kicking his ass until his friends chipped in, forcing Slade to retreat. It was a type of routine between the two of them, and Slade enjoyed it immensely.

"Who? Oh right, the demon girl. I nearly forgot about her." He chuckled. "If you would kindly…?" He motioned at the staff pointed unceremoniously against his face.

To his surprise, the leader complied. Wasn't he taking things a bit too easily? The Robin Slade knew was too smart to ever give in to such an atrocious request, and now he had just made things a whole lot easier. Slade was easily comparable to Robin in terms of physical abilities, and such a move had just made Robin an easy target.

Well, Slade did enjoy a bit of drama, so he'll play along. For the moment. Turning around confidently, he walked towards the darker end of the room where he had kept the demoness. He could hear Robin following him cautiously, keeping a measurable distance from him just in case he tried anything funny. _It's too late, dear boy. You lost your chance when you took that staff away._

Still, it would be satisfying to see Robin's pain when he sets his eyes on his former team mate. Slade would allow the boy and the girl to live for a little while longer before finishing them off. He smirked as Raven came into view. He had done a pretty good job. He had used a belt – the ever traditional tool – to whip her until her leotard ripped, forming large red welts where the belt had come into contact with her skin. The rope binding her arms and legs had been intentionally tied a bit too tightly, digging into her skin painfully. This was the perfect kidnap, and she looked like the perfect victim. He turned to study Robin's reaction.

Robin's hands curled to form tight balls in his anger, but his expression remained the same: cold and collected. Slade felt a little impatience rising up inside him. The reaction was far too mild! Looks like the leader would need a little more goading just before he breaks.

He walked forward to the demoness, giving her a hard slap to wake her up. From the corner of his vision he could see the leader flinch. He traced a finger slowly around Raven's earlobe, travelling down until he was circling the exposed nape of her neck. She awoke after a while, her eyes unfocused, obviously struggling to register her surroundings.

Her eyes widened when she saw Robin. There was a moment of silence before Raven's previously calm façade collapsed and she started to thrash about in the chair, struggling fiercely against her bonds. She made agonized noises with her throat, her eyes wild.

Robin forced himself not to react as violently as she did, but he was having problems with that as well. The sight of her had stirred up in him both relief and fury, and he wanted so much to tell her that everything was going to be fine, but he knew that wasn't the case. He had already left so many openings for Slade; he knew that the villain was just waiting for the chance to strike. And it was definitely going to end really messily, depending on what Slade wanted to do with the two of them.

And something else puzzled _and _worried him. "Why can't she use her powers?" he asked through gritted teeth. She should have easily blown up something with her current temperament.

Slade laughed. "You know, villains like me have our fair share of illegal drugs, so some problem like emotion-controlled power can be easily solved."

"You're a bastard."

"I get that a lot."

"Release her."

"Come on, Robin, you always demand something from me without offering to give me anything in return! You know that's hardly fair."

"_You_ kidnapped Raven. I hardly call that not taking something from me."

"Getting personal, are we?"

"I don't know why I'm actually entertaining you." Robin walked forward and started to remove the gag from Raven. She moved more violently now, her head shaking furiously. When the gag was finally off her face, she coughed painfully for a few minutes before croaking, "Are you crazy? He's obviously trying to trap you! What the hell were you thinking?"

Robin proceeded to attend to the rope around her legs as Slade watched amusedly from the side. "You're welcome." He muttered, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"No, you don't get it, do you? You'll never beat him! He's got those three crazy – "

Robin felt the cold steel edge of a knife immediately being pressed against his neck, and he allowed it to guide him upwards and away from the shocked demoness. He didn't need to turn around to see who it was.

The masked villain laughed. "Ah, here we go again, dear Robin. You haven't been using your brain recently, have you?" He shoved the leader against the wall, his knife inches away from Robin's exposed neck. "You made three mistakes today. Three lessons to be learnt. Number one – "

Robin tried to kick him, but the masked man dodged him easily. "Ah, let's not get impatient, shall we? As I was saying, number one, you should never turn your back on me. Number two, you should never attempt to make unreasonable bargains. I give - sometimes - and expect something in return. Number three – "

For good measure, Slade gave Robin a hard punch to the stomach which made the leader double over, gasping in pain. " - you greet me when you see me. I don't tolerate being ignored."

He waited for the leader to reply. The leader seemed unusually weak today, taking quick and worried glances at his kidnapped friend. What an idiot. The boy had never seemed to understand why he always failed. He failed because he cared for his friends too much. It happened with Terra, and it would happen now. He got so concerned over his friends that he never focused on the real task at hand, which was to defeat Slade once and for all. His feelings for his friends ruined everything. Couldn't he just understand that simple fact?

He grabbed Robin by the collar and slammed him against the wall painfully, lifting him up such that the leader's legs were dangling helplessly off the ground. "Not so strong now, are you? You disappoint me," he hissed.

Robin's face was turning slightly red at the pressure on his neck, but he still managed to squeeze out a few words. "I'll never let you – "

Slade didn't allow him to finish. With a mighty throw, he hurled Robin to the other wall, watching in satisfaction as Robin crashed into the brick surface, forming a large human-sized crater at the impact. Still, the leader struggle to get up, but he made no attempt to start attacking Slade.

"You know what your problem is?" Slade sneered, walking to the leader and kicking him hard in the stomach. "You don't know how to give up." Another kick. "You don't know how to let go." Another punch. "You overestimate yourself. You think you alone are good enough to defeat me? You really think so?"

Robin looked up at the villain, his expression calm even though his face was filled with bruises. "I don't," he said.

Slade's fist stopped in mid-air. "What?"

"You heard me," Robin panted, supporting himself against the wall as he got up. "I don't."

"Now that's a first." Slade smiled. "Look at the dear old Robin, telling his opponent he's weak!" His metal boot came crashing down on Robin's cheek, pinning the leader to the ground. "Pathetic."

Robin didn't say anything. Why wasn't he fighting? "You know, by now you should be fighting back," Slade prompted uncertainly. His plan ended at fighting Robin one-on-one and winning, but beating up a non-resistant Robin wasn't exactly part of what he had in mind.

"I know," Robin said against his boot. "But I don't see the point of doing so."

"And why is that?"

"Because I don't work alone."

Slade threw his head back and laughed loudly. "Oh? So who is going to help you now? Your drugged girlfriend? Or maybe the titans, who are slacking around at home?"

"We are SO not slacking around at home!" A higher-pitched voice resounded from behind Slade, and he whipped around immediately, staring in shock as a familiar green changeling appeared from nowhere, supporting a weak Raven. "You… you…" Beast Boy struggled to find something smart and heroic to say. "… you, um, you stupid liar!"

Robin laughed weakly. "Surprise." Without waiting for Slade to reply, he went on. "I told you I don't work alone."

"Where did he come from?" Slade asked reluctantly through gritted teeth. It simply couldn't be! He had booby traps placed everywhere! If any titan had passed by he would have been able to see them through the security cameras.

Robin pointed at the pizza box. "Your Hawaiian came with a free pet mouse."

* * *

Raven leaned weakly on Beast Boy's shoulder. For his small build, it was quite surprising how strong he was, because the green changeling didn't seem to feel tired at all. Instead, his eyes were burning with a sort of determined ferocity Raven had never seen before. She examined her hands briefly. The green mouse had bitten through the rope swiftly, and the broken pieces of rope lay scattered around her. She struggled to focus on Slade and Robin. Robin was in a horrible condition, but he didn't seem to allow himself to be affected by it. "Robin," she whispered, her eyes fixated on the leader. Damn it, if she still had her powers she would at the very least be able to heal those wounds. He was in utterly no condition to fight.

Slade recovered quickly, but his voice was still tinged with anger. "Well done again, Robin, you have outsmarted me. For the moment." He pulled out a remote control from his belt. Flashing it a little triumphantly, he raised a finger and pressed a red button.

An alarm blared, and the room was immediately flooded in red light. Raven barely managed to regain her composure before the door was forced open, and she took in the dreadful sight of the 3 villainous sidekicks standing in the doorway.

"Oh shit," Beast Boy complained as Jinx, Gizmo and Mammoth stalked in, their smiles malicious. Slade regained his triumphant posture, and Raven frowned. How were the three of them going to defeat all four of them? Where were Cyborg and Starfire anyway?

At the corner of her vision, Raven saw Robin's bo-staff lying right next to the chair she was strapped to previously. That's right. He hadn't managed to take it back after Slade got him. Slowly, she inched towards the staff and pretended to collapse against the chair so that she could get closer to the floor.

Thankful that Beast Boy, in his anger, had not seen her horrible act, Raven slid towards the staff and grabbed it. It was cold against her fingers, and she gripped it tightly, pushing as hard as she could to shorten it. Fortunately, the collapsible staff complied.

"Robin!" she yelled, hurling the staff to him with all her might. The leader regained his wits and caught it single-handedly from the air, immediately elongating it again and pointing it at Slade. He was weak, but Raven could see that he had absolutely no intention to show it.

To her shock, he whipped out his communicator and spoke into it. "You can come out now," he said calmly. Before anyone could react, there were two loud blasts, and the three sidekicks who were still grinning evilly in the doorway were suddenly flung forwards with a sudden force.

Raven could have collapsed in relief. In the doorway now stood Starfire and Cyborg, their arms raised, their fingers still smoking from their attacks. "Hello, friend Raven!" Starfire squealed, bounding towards the demoness and hugging her tightly until she thought her ribs nearly cracked. Cyborg didn't move, but he gave her a reassuring smile.

"Sorry, Rob," Cyborg said apologetically. "We were going to make a grand entrance after following those three morons but they were blocking the damn door."

Nodding slightly, Robin immediately used the momentary pause to yell, "Titans, go!" There was chaos. As the 3 sidekicks started to regain their bearings, the titans quickly made use of their temporary advantage. Starfire started to throw starbolts relentlessly at Jinx before the witch could charge her spells, and with a well-aimed kick Starfire sent Jinx hurtling to the other corner of the room. With a yell, she zipped towards the villain, refusing to let her regain her bearings for a minute.

Cyborg, on the other hand, had commenced a wrestling match against Mammoth, who was busily screaming his battle cry. Mammoth was no weakling, so Cyborg knew that he would have to cheat if he wanted to win. With his last effort, Cyborg wrenched his robotic arm free and shot a cannon blast right at Mammoth's chest, sending both of them flying away from each other. Regaining his footing, Cyborg sprinted towards the dazed Mammoth, slamming a fist into his stomach and sending him flying again.

Beast Boy and Gizmo circled each other warily. Both knew they were very much the same physically, so they had resorted to engaging in verbal wars.

"Hi, pit-sniffer."

"Hi, baldie."

"You suck."

"You suck more."

With two enraged yells, the two were on each other immediately, Gizmo shooting wildly with his guns while Beast Boy decided to go elephant.

That was left with just Robin and Slade. As Slade lifted the remote once more, Robin dashed forward and kicked it out of his grasp, sending it skittering away across the floor where it accidentally got sat on by Beast Boy the green elephant. Scowling, Slade turned back to the Boy Wonder.

Robin pointed a finger at him. "You really piss me off."

"That's a mutual feeling, trust me."

Robin winced slightly as he moved, getting himself into combat position. This was dangerous. He was fighting and yet he knew he would hardly be able to last against Slade for more than a few minutes in his condition. Maybe the getting-beaten-up-so-as-to-buy-time idea wasn't such a good one after all.

Ah, whatever. At least he had dug up all of Slade's hidden tricks as of now. He knew that the place was booby-trapped, so he had allowed Slade to guide him through initially, giving Cyborg and Starfire the proper route to follow. And since he knew he would need somebody to untie Raven, Beast Boy seemed to be the perfect choice.

He knew he would have to apologise to the poor naked pizza boy later, but that wasn't important.

Struggling to focus, Robin rubbed his eyes. He needed to get this guy. With a shout, he lunged towards the villain, and they immediately initiated hand-to-hand combat, Slade easily blocking all of Robin's desperate jabs with his staff and his kicks. This wasn't going well.

Suddenly, Robin's vision blurred. _Shit._ He lifted a hand to rub his eyes once more, but Slade took the opportunity to kick him hard in the stomach again. Robin tumbled to a corner, spitting out blood. This was bad. He wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer. He turned to the side. The titans were still busy fighting the others, so he wouldn't be able to rely on them for help.

He struggled to get up, but he ended up collapsing again. He could see Slade walking calmly towards him, and he closed his eyes, waiting for the blow to come.

* * *

Slade lifted his boot, taking his time to position it directly over the leader's head. The leader didn't move, obviously resigned to his fate. Slade relished the moment. So this was the day. The day Robin the Boy Wonder was defeated by him. Once he was gone, the titans wouldn't have much morale left. And then he could slowly torture them, one by one, by one.

He should thank Raven for that. While she hadn't exactly been cooperative thus far, she had contributed greatly to this victory. He would show his appreciation later. Maybe by letting her finish off her former team mates? Oh yes, sounded suitable.

His boot stopped in mid-air, and he couldn't seem to move it. Shocked, he watched as a black aura around his leg became visible. He turned to look at the demoness. Frowning in concentration, her hands were extended towards him, her eyes black. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she hissed, jerking her hand towards the side.

Immediately, Slade felt himself being thrown into the air, and he didn't have time to brace for the impact as he crashed into a wall. His head throbbing, he got up with some difficulty, attempting to regain his wits. "You…" he started, but at once he was lifted into the air again, and he hurtled into another wall.

"This is for all the hurt you've caused me and my friends." Raven spat, throwing her arm to the other side. Slade crashed into the ceiling, and then into the wall. He could feel blood dripping down his face behind the mask. She walked towards him, her arm still raised and surrounded by black aura. She knelt down such that her mouth was near his ear. Quietly, she whispered, "Fuck you."

Just as she raised her hand to deal the finishing blow, something stopped her. Wide-eyed, she turned around to face Robin, battered but still very much alive. "That's enough," he said firmly. "If you kill him we will be nothing different from him. That's not who we are."

Raven's arm trembled, but she relaxed and Robin let her go. Both of them trudged away from the villain on the ground. Soon enough, the other titans had finished off the rest, and they unceremoniously dumped the unconscious sidekicks next to their leader. Everyone had their fair share of bruises, but Robin's was undoubtedly the worst off. Raven was starting to feel slightly woozy as well, and exhaustion ran through her. Using her powers had taken up a lot of energy because of the amount used to focus under the influence of Slade's drug.

Raven realised Robin was intentionally standing far away from her. She could understand that. After all she had said to him, she knew it would take a lot more than just fighting Slade to get his forgiveness. Guiltily, she realised that he had in fact stopped her from being just like Slade, the very person she cruelly compared him to in the past.

But still, he _had _hurt her feelings. He wasn't totally innocent either.

She looked away. She didn't know what she was going to do now. She probably would stay with the titans, but she knew the rift between Robin and her would remain. She wondered what it would be like. Another few months of cold war, and then a reluctant friendship?

Sighing, she pulled her hood over her head and studied her bruises. She wouldn't be able to heal in her weakened state. She could probably help with a few flesh wounds for the others, but the serious injuries would have to wait.

And then, it all happened too fast. Raven heard Robin shouting her name, and as she turned around she saw Robin leap in front of her, arms outstretched. She saw him stiffen suddenly, as if something had hit him. And as she looked over his shoulder, she saw Slade's arm extended towards her, his knife having just left his palm. That was when realization slammed into her, and she watched in horror as Robin slumped to the ground in front of her, the hilt of Slade's knife sticking out through his back.


	17. What now

**Author's Note: **** Hi guys, I'll be wrapping up Maid Unleashed in the next chapter, BUT I'm considering adding another bonus chapter based on one of the 5 titans in the story. I still haven't decided what I want to do with that certain character yet, however, it will be up to you readers to decide which character you would like me to write about. So while reviewing please leave a name too!**

* * *

Raven stood rooted to the spot, eyes wide. Everything passed her in a blur. The other three titans leaping onto Slade and pinning him to the ground. Robin slumping down onto the ground, a small and relieved smile forming on his badly bruised face, his mouth opening to form words she couldn't seem to hear.

This wasn't happening. This _couldn't _be happening.

With a cry, she flung herself on the ground next to Robin, picking him up as gently as she could and cradling his head in her lap. She realised she was sobbing uncontrollably, and she found herself foolishly brushing his hair out of his face, her tears dripping down her chin and falling all over his face.

Her emotions were bursting out of her; she couldn't be bothered to control them anymore. She was aware of the chair at the back of the room exploding into pieces, followed by the table of stacked screens and the overhead lights, but she didn't care. She could vaguely hear her fellow friends screaming something at her, but she ignored them. She was far beyond reasoning now. Nothing could stop her.

Raven placed her two hands on the leader's chest, literally screaming the familiar words over and over, willing for her powers to listen to her. A blue aura formed around her palms, and she sensed the multiple injuries on his body, her heart twisting painfully.

Her movements wild and frantic, Raven wrenched the blade out of Robin's back before throwing all her unbridled emotions into the healing, willing for the internal injury sustained to heal.

It wasn't enough. She had to do more. She pushed further. Just a little more, and then…

A sudden exhaustion overcame her, and she couldn't hold it back anymore. Robin's unconscious face was the last thing she saw before everything went black.

* * *

_"I've been trying to figure you out for days. You are a – I don't know- witch, who comes to the Tower, claims to be a maid, and denies who Slade is. But you can't possibly be on the human's side, because you aren't human."_

_"If you are with Slade, then I can keep an eye on you. If you are not, well… you sure make a hell of a maid."_

Flash.

_"I can't afford to have a weak fighter on my team if I'm going to bring down Slade."_

Flash.

_"I've been trying to convince myself that you're a part of Slade's team, but I admit it's… it's difficult. I've even gone to the extent to rooming with you, but it just proves to me that you're no Terra. I guess someone up there has something against me."_

Flash.

_"Don't give me that bullshit. I know. I know what you've been planning from the very damn beginning. You kissed me - "_

_"Because I damn well like you."_

Flash. Flash. Flash.

Raven awoke with a gasp, her body jerking upright in the bed. She was back in the ever familiar room, with wires strapped all over her body and machines by her bedside beeping incessantly.

This time, however, she wasn't alone. Beast Boy, Starfire and Cyborg were crowded around her bed, their eyes shining brightly, their faces full of worry and concern.

"Friend Raven? Are you alright?"

She couldn't seem to speak. She had so many things she wanted to say that all the words had gotten stuck in her throat.

"Raven! Are you okay! Can you still remember me? What's my name?" Beast Boy was perched in front of her, his hands clasped around her shoulders and shaking her frantically. "Oh no, don't tell me she has gone mentally handicapped or something like those people who awake from comas and become vegetable-men, oh shit oh shit oh shit – "

And then she remembered. Robin being stabbed. Him falling down in front of her. Her half-completed healing.

Raven started to fumble stupidly with the wires in an attempt to yank them out, her eyes wild. Swiftly, Cyborg leaped forward and caught both of her wrists in two tight grasps. "Stop it, Rae," he said sternly, restraining her struggles.

To his surprise, she relaxed and returned his stare, her eyes filled with tears. "Robin," she whispered.

* * *

There was a moment of silence in the room. Beast Boy jumped forward as if he was about to say something, but Cyborg pushed him back and motioned for the two to leave the room. Starfire complied obediently, but Beast Boy had to be dragged out with Star's superhuman alien strength, his complaints loud and whiny.

When the door finally closed behind them, Cyborg let her go, giving her a reassured smile as he went back to sit on the chair.

"You know, you are awfully strong for someone your size," he joked, attempting to loosen the tension in the atmosphere.

"Where's Robin?"

"In the other room."

"I want to see him."

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."

Raven paused, her eyes wide and fearful. Now that was a sight Cyborg had never seen before. Usually she had a totally emotionless expression, and even her voice was usually monotonous and uncaring. But now, he sensed worry impregnated in every word that came out of her mouth. She seemed to struggle with her words before they came out, slow and hesitant.

"Is he… alive?"

Cyborg gave a start, before laughing uproariously. "Of course! Is he ali – of course he is! Lady, would we all be here staring at you with worry if he wasn't alive?"

Raven visibly relaxed, her shoulders slumping in relief. "That's… good."

Cyborg gave her a playful clap on the shoulder. "Hey, I know he got himself a pretty bad cut there, but you should know that even if the apocalypse took place right now our leader would probably be the last person left on Earth still alive and kicking." He studied her melancholy face, before adding quietly, "He survived because of you, you know."

Raven looked up. "Me?"

"Yeah, you." Cyborg stood up and started to pace the room. "That cool, blue healing thing you did there worked. When I ran some examinations on him I realised that he should have sustained some internal damage because that cut was pretty deep, but guess what? I found nothing."

"But I didn't manage to heal him complet – "

"Yeah, but what you did saved his life. I just needed to do a bit of stitching, and he was already in a pretty stable condition. In fact, he had a wound somewhere on his side that needed a bit more attention. And it wasn't even as deep as the one you healed."

Cyborg plopped back into his seat. "So actually, the one we worried about the most was you."

"Me?"

"Yeah. He's been up and about for a few days already, but you've been unconscious for a week."

Raven stared at the machineman in shock. "A week?"

"Yup. Slade and his friends have been rotting in jail for about a week already. You see, you seemed to have gone over the limit with how much power you've used, so your body required a 7-day holiday."

"So… Robin is okay now?"

"He's doing great. I've forbidden him from training for a month, so he's pretty pissed about it, but other than that he's more than fine."

Raven hesitated. "Then why can't I see him?"

"Well, about that…" Cyborg shifted uncomfortably. "It's for some, er, personal reasons."

"What personal reasons?"

Cyborg avoided her stare, but gave up in the end. "Well, he said that he doesn't, um, exactly, um, want to see you right now, yeah, something like that." He waved his hands hurriedly. "I bet I heard something wrongly, you know, my ears aren't exactly very reliable, so…"

His words withered away as he took in Raven's defeated reaction. He placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You know, I wouldn't take it too seriously. Maybe he needs time to think things through. I mean, the last time you guys actually talked to each other, it wasn't under the best of circumstances."

Beast Boy burst into the room again, dragging a reluctant Starfire by the arm. "Well! Then we have to solve the problem, don't we?"

Cyborg glared at Beast Boy, before shooting Starfire a questioning glance. "I am sorry, friend Cyborg," the alien apologised. "I was not able to restrain friend Beast Boy."

"How long have you two been standing outside eavesdropping on us?"

Starfire blushed. "For a considerable amount of time."

Beast Boy grinned widely. "C'mon, Cy! This is an issue of absolute importance! We have to reunite the two star-crossed lovers!"

"They are _not_ star-crossed – "

Beast Boy flung an arm into the air and slapped his palm dramatically to his forehead. "Oh, the tragedy! The sadness of forbidden love! The cruelty of, um, er, forbidden love!"

Raven cut in hurriedly to prevent Beast Boy from continuing. "That's alright, I don't exactly need – "

"No!" Beast Boy leaped forward and held her by the shoulders again. "As your friend and sex god, I have to carry the heavy responsibility of seeing you reunited with your destined one! I shall never let you, my minion, fall into the pit of despair and loneliness. As the Sex God, it is my duty to ensure eternal happiness for all of my minions!"

Cyborg sighed. "Well, Mr Sex God, how exactly are you going to go on with your matchmaking services? Robin has already made it clear that, um, he doesn't really want to see Raven right now."

Beast Boy turned around to shoot a glare at Cyborg. "If there is a will, there is a way. But if there is a Beast Boy, there are a million ways."

"That didn't make any sense."

The remark was conveniently ignored. "Come, Raven, listen to my brilliant plan! Brace yourself…"

Beast Boy paused for dramatic effect. Starfire leaned forward earnestly, eyes dancing as she waited for the most brilliant plan of all…

"Tell him he makes you hot," Beast Boy said triumphantly.

There was a pause before Cyborg whacked Beast Boy across the back of his head with his palm. "That's the stupidest idea I've heard."

"Hey!" Beast Boy said indignantly, rubbing the back of his head. "That's an awesome idea! They should have this really sexy passionate moment together, and then they can get hitched in Japan or something, and then I can get myself some hot Japanese schoolgirl!"

Raven raised an eyebrow. "That's okay, I'm not really in for it."

"No friend Raven!" Starfire said excitedly. "You must meet with him! When the male does the avoiding of the female, it means that he has the interest in her. It is important for the forming of the mates!"

"Starfire, we are not _anywhere_ near mates – "

"Star is right!" Beast Boy nodded vigorously, slinging an arm over Starfire's shoulder. "You must go and meet him, and then you guys should have a steamy love scene like those in the American movies!"

Raven turned to Cyborg for help. To her dismay, the machineman didn't seem as repulsed by Beast Boy's idea as he did before. "They're right in saying that you should meet with him, you know," he said thoughtfully.

Raven shook her head frantically. "You know I can't do that. You yourself said that Robin doesn't want to see me right now – "

"But nothing's stopping you from going to see him personally, right?" Cyborg sighed. "Look, Rae, I know you guys have this misunderstanding going on, but I don't think it should carry on."

Raven gave the idea some thought. "Yeah, it shouldn't," she said after a while.

Beast Boy and Starfire visibly brightened, looking at the demoness with hopeful eyes.

"So I'll leave the Tower." Raven continued. The two slumped in defeat immediately, their hopes vanishing into thin air.

Frantic, Beast Boy yelled, "No! You cannot! We're not going to let you leave this place!"

Raven looked up, her eyes challenging. "That's the only way. I can't stay here. I left because _he _didn't trust me. He never did. I was just a pawn, like bait – "

"That's not true," Cyborg said quietly.

"And how would you know that?"

A grin forming slowly on his face, Cyborg pulled out a tape recorder, waving it around triumphantly. "I know how bad his pride can get, so I recorded it down."

"Recorded what down?"

Cyborg didn't reply. He pressed the red button on the recorder, and immediately Cyborg's familiar voice emerged from the little device. Raven leaned forward to hear it more clearly.

_"You are going to keep seeing her as a pawn?"_

_"Of course," Robin replied. "She's always been bait for Slade. When has that ever changed?"_

Raven's heart twisted. She remembered this conversation very well. It was what started the whole thing in the first place. Just as she was about to lean back, Cyborg lifted a hand, motioning for her to continue listening. Reluctantly, she kept herself in that position and forced herself to listen further.

There was a long pause before Cyborg's voice emerged again.

_"You know I don't buy that."_

"_Buy what?"_

_"Leave off the fake ignorant questions, will ya."_

_"They are __not __ignorant, and definitely __not __fake."_

_"You sure of that?"_

A long silence ensued. Raven held her breath, awaiting Robin's answer. _"No."_

_"No to what?"_

_"Fine. I don't see her as a pawn, alright? I don't want to use her. I trust her. Happy?"_

_"Not quite."_

_"What do you want now?"_

_"You haven't told me everything yet."_

_"No, I haven't. She… intrigues me."_

_"Intrigue? Speak English, dude."_

_"Intrigue __is__ English. Can you please stop getting influenced by BB's stupidity?"_

_"Sorry, my bad. Go on. What __intrigues__ you about her?"_

_"I don't know, dammit. Everything? Yeah, close to everything. The way she talks as if she was raised by rocks. The way she frowns at everything. The way she drinks tea in the mornings. Her crazy 5 hour long meditations. Her damn cloak. Her – "_

Cyborg clicked the button again. "That's about all I captured," he smiled. Studying Raven, he went on. "You see? I don't know where you got the whole Robin-only-wants-to-use-you idea from, but from what I've heard and seen I'd say he's totally into you."

Raven forced herself to regain her emotionless expression. This couldn't be. She had so obviously heard…! She felt that pleasant warm feeling in her chest again, and that strange fluttering which she hadn't felt for so long returned. It was strangely… uplifting.

But then again, how did any of that matter now? The fact that there was a huge rift between Robin and her had not changed. That quarrel had done its damage. He had told her to forget about him confessing. Even though she really wished to, she couldn't turn back time.

"That doesn't change anything," she mumbled.

"What?"

Raven gave the titans a weak smile. "I still can't stay here. Robin and I… it wouldn't have worked out. We can't even work as a team. Look at us. He doesn't even want to see me, and I don't know how I'm going to face him from now on."

"But – "

"I know it was a misunderstanding, but what I've said really hurt him. We won't be able to get along, I know that for sure. What I said to him… never mind. He isn't going to forgive me, that's one thing I'm sure of. You guys are the Teen Titans. You can't let someone like me ruin the camaraderie you guys already have."

"But you are one of us!" Starfire protested.

"I _was_ one of you," Raven corrected, smiling resignedly. "It's not just Robin. Maybe the whole fighting business just isn't my thing."

There was silence as the titans considered what she said. "Are you sure about this?" Cyborg asked reluctantly. Beast Boy looked as if he was about to protest, but finding no possible argument he sank down in defeat again.

Raven nodded her head mutely. The idea that she would have to leave the Tower once more nearly killed her. She loved this place, but she knew she didn't belong. She was a demoness. She belonged in a dark place like Azarath.

"We'll… always be best buddies, right?" Beast Boy said, his voice hurt. Starfire had proceeded to sob quietly against his shoulder.

"Yeah, we will," Raven forced another smile onto her face. "I'll try and um, visit."

She was feeling a lot stronger now, and she stretched her limbs beneath the blankets. Seven days of sleep had done her a considerable amount of good. She had recovered her strength and her energy; and furthermore the problem of Slade had already been solved, so she had nothing to fear.

Throwing off her blankets and swinging her legs over the bed, she got up and swept herself down. "So, I guess I should start packing," she said, attempting to sound cheerful. In truth, she wanted to leave as fast as possible to prevent herself from crying.

Without a word, Raven pulled her hood over her head and swept out of the room, forcing herself not to say goodbye to the three solemn titans.

* * *

She found herself standing stupidly outside Robin's door, the haversack of belongings slung around her shoulder. She didn't know why her feet had automatically dragged the rest of her body towards this door, but somehow she knew deep inside that she would have to face the leader again, no matter how much she didn't want to.

Well, it was always best to say goodbye with no hard feelings. She knew she wouldn't be seeing the titans again, and that idea stung. The least she could do would be to apologise to the leader and part on friendly terms. That depended on whether he was even willing to see her, an idea she strongly doubted. Why would he still want to see her? She had accused him of something he didn't do. She had called him all sorts of names. And she had compared him to Slade. Not exactly the wisest idea.

She raised a fist hesitantly, her arm trembling. Was he in his room? And if he was, would he respond to her knocking? She knew what his cold attitude was like.

And it scared her. She didn't want to re-experience the hurt she felt before. Especially from the very person she liked.

She let her hand drop resignedly. Seeing him before she left wasn't a very good idea after all. Maybe she should just leave and let the titans reveal the news to him themselves. Not like it was going to make much of a difference to him, anyway.

Turning on her heel, she began to walk away. There was still no sound from the room, and she began to suspect that he wasn't even in there in the first place. Smiling bitterly to herself, she allowed her footsteps to quicken. If she walked fast enough, maybe she could get out of the Tower without being noticed by anyone else.

And then she stopped. This wasn't right. What was wrong with saying a normal goodbye? Why was she dramatizing things like this? It was totally unnecessary. It was just a stupid goodbye. She could do that. She was a demoness, for Azarath's sake.

Turning again on the spot, Raven stalked back towards where she came from, coming to a halt outside Robin's room door. She could do this.

Okay, maybe she wouldn't knock. She was just going to talk to the door. No big deal. She could talk to a door. Yup, no biggie.

Taking a deep breath, Raven commenced her conversation with the door.

"Hi," she said conversationally, giving the door a little wave. Maybe she should let down her hood; it would be more courteous to do so. She wouldn't want the door to be offended by her. So she hurriedly pushed down her hood, stupidly arranging her hair subconsciously.

The door didn't reply. Well, that's good. That probably meant that it was listening. Relaxing, Raven continued talking to it.

"I don't know if you're in there, but if you are not, I guess that makes things easier for me. If you are, well, I just thought it would be, er, polite to let you know that I'm leaving. For real. You won't need to worry about me anymore, because, you know, you won't have to deal with Slade for the time being, yeah. Ha ha. Lucky you, right?"

Raven paused. There was still no response from the room or the door. So he really wasn't in there. Well, that was fine by her. It made things a lot less awkward.

Hesitating, she went on. "And I wanted to say that I'm… that I'm… I'm sorry. I'm sorry for, you know, calling you names and um, comparing you to, er, You-Know-Who." What in the name of Azarath was wrong with her? Now she had resorted to treating Slade like _Voldemort_? Fantastic. Just fantastic.

"I really didn't mean it. Okay, maybe I did then, but I don't now. I misunderstood you. I thought you didn't trust me. I guess I was so hopeful that at least you of all people would put some faith in me, and when I heard you talking to Cyborg I just kind of got the wrong idea. You see, I really wanted to be part of this team." She gulped. "I still do, actually. But don't worry, I'm not forcing you or anything. I don't deserve to be here. I've caused you guys so much trouble I'm too embarrassed to even think about it. Yeah, so."

She was rubbing her fingers together, she realised. "So I know you don't want to see me, that sucks, but it's actually better for both of us this way. I just wanted to say I'm sorry, and thank you for giving me this experience in the Tower, because it was just phenomenal. I don't know if you will think the same of me, but I'll always see you as a friend, like how I'll see the others. And I…" She trailed off, not completing her sentence which was meant to go on to "_really like you_". There was no point confessing to a door. She slumped in defeat. So this was it. No one could blame her for not trying.

"Are you done talking to my door?"

Raven whirled around in shock, unable to control her emotions as she took in the sight of Robin leaning casually against the wall of the corridor. The recently replaced potted plant beside her exploded, but none of them paid it any attention.

Robin looked different. Instead of the colourful suit he usually had on, he wore a loose grey hoodie which had a few faded words that Raven couldn't seem to decipher, along with a pair of faded jeans. He had traded his metal boots for a pair of Adidas sports shoes, and his hair was messier than usual, obviously not gelled up like it always was.

Silence reigned between them, and Raven realised that all the words that she wanted to say had melted on her tongue; the sight of him was simply too overwhelming.

She watched as Robin wordlessly moved past her towards his room, his steps hardly making any noise on the floor. Pressing the button near the door carelessly, he hardly waited for the doors to hiss open before walking calmly into his room. Raven sighed inwardly. So he was _still_ going to avoid her. She should have known.

And then she realised that the doors had not closed as she had expected them to. The doors to his room remained wide open, and from the angle where she stood she could vaguely see the leader flopping onto his own bed, stretching his lithe body and putting his arms behind his head. He made no move to close the door, and Raven hoped she knew why.

Her heart pounding like a sledgehammer, Raven stepped into the room and allowed the doors to close behind her.


	18. Weird Conversations

The room was a bit too quiet for Raven's liking.

No, that was no lie. No one would actually believe that a demoness like her would dislike the golden virtue of silence, but no matter how hard she tried to push away that feeling of discomfort brewing inside her, she didn't manage to succeed.

Raven took a deep breath. Okay, she was going to do this. She was going to get this done and over with, and then she will leave. There was no need to feel nervous. Demonesses don't feel nervous. She was peace and calm… peace and calm… calm and peace…

Her face was starting to feel hot. Hurriedly, she pulled her hood over her head to hide her colouring face, cursing inwardly. This wasn't going as well as she had hoped. When she made that horribly stupid decision to walk into Robin's room uninvited, she had planned to give Robin a few rhetorical lines to think about before swaggering out the cool way like the protagonists usually did in those Hollywood movies, her head held high with pride.

This was just brilliant. She _had _succeeded in walking into Robin's room; the problem now was that her love-sick brain was being totally unhelpful in conjuring up cool lines to say.

So this was how she had ended up. Standing right in the middle of his room, her haversack still draped limply over her right shoulder, staring dumbly at the leader who was still lying motionlessly on his bed, obviously making no effort to at least start a conversation.

She hated him. Oh, how she _hated _him.

She suddenly felt so sick of it all. She was sick of having to feel sorry towards him. She was sick of having to feel so much humiliation in front of him. She was sick of having to feel heartbreak because of him. What right did he have to _demand_ not to see her? Who did he think he was? He was just a lowly _human. _He didn't have any damn right to make her feel scared. She saved his fucking _life._ And what did she get in return? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

This was probably what Beast Boy felt like after he got a negative 5 score on Quake 4.

Realising that she had started glaring at him for no reason at all, Raven quickly stopped herself and looked at her feet. He made no move from the bed, and when she allowed herself to give him a quick glance she realised that he was staring up at the ceiling. At least she thought that was what he was doing. She couldn't see where he was looking at _exactly _because of his stupid mask.

She took another deep breath. She was wasting his –and her – time just standing there doing nothing. She knew she could definitely do better than this. It was now or never. There was no point in hesitating anymore. If he thought she was just going to stand there quietly and stare at him like a lovestruck fool, he was so very wrong.

"I guess you heard what I said back there," Raven started slowly, forcing herself not to trip over her words. "I don't know if you heard everything, but considering the fact that you have made a habit out of shadowing yourself in dark corners I'm going to make an intelligent guess that you caught all that I said."

No response from the leader. Not the usual smirk she was so used to seeing, but not the scowl she expected as well. He was just like a stone statue. The type that didn't move no matter how long you spent talking to it.

Raven forced herself to start talking again to rid herself of the sudden awkward feeling of unwelcome that was starting to creep into her. "Look, I'm sorry for, you know, barging into your room like this, but since… since, you know, you didn't close your door, I just…" She motioned vaguely at the door with an arm. "I just thought I'll walk in and make things official. I don't know, I just wanted to…"

Her words withered away pathetically, regretting that they even came out in the first place. Hell, she was already regretting her decision to walk into his room uninvited. Her whole body was literally screaming at her to escape from the room, but something was holding her back.

Raven's heart hardened again, and she gripped her fists tightly. She was the daughter of Trigon, the most feared demon in Azarath. She could do this.

"Okay, I'll be honest with you. Do you know why I'm leaving again? Did you think it's because you don't want to see me anymore? Do you think you have that authority over me?" Raven took a step forward challengingly. "Hate to burst your bubble here, but the answer is _no_. I don't care what you think, I don't care what anyone else thinks. You may think that this whole world revolves around you, but you're wrong. In my world, everything revolves around _me_."

The anger was building up inside her, fuelling the sudden confidence that she now felt. "I'll tell you why I'm leaving. Because I hate the fact that I like you. I hate the fact that whenever I see you and your stupid face, my heart wants to break. I hate the fact that I nearly lose control of myself when you stand near me, or talk to me. I hate it."

She was breathing heavily now at the outburst. But she knew she couldn't stop here. "I hate it that your opinion mattered so much to me before. So that's why I'm going to tell you this again. I don't care what you think anymore. I'm too sick of all this to care. I'm too sick of liking you."

She couldn't look at the leader anymore. She didn't see his reaction, and she didn't want to see it. So she turned her head up towards the ceiling and addressed the ceiling instead. "Do you want to know why I like you? Hell, I don't know either. I like it when you take care of your team mates. I like your leadership. I like your maturity. I like how you are so good at bloody well _everything_ even though you don't have powers like the rest of us. I like how you trash Beast Boy and Cyborg at video games even though you hardly play them. I like how you are so determined at everything. I like how you strategize. I like how you can pull off that suit of yours and still look so damn good. I like how you… how you kiss me."

She realised that she had started to gush like a crazy fangirl in front of him. Oh no no no no no no. Demonesses don't _gush_. Raven Roth did not just _gush._ It must have been some other female in the room. Yup, it wasn't her. Definitely wasn't her.

She scrabbled weakly at whatever pride she had left. "I'll tell you what I don't like about you." She glared at the ceiling. "I don't like your arrogance. I don't like your overbearing pride. I don't like your slave-driving. I don't like the way you can break my heart so easily with just a few words. I don't like how you obsess over Slade. And I don't like your room. It's too messy, it's such a chore to clean."

Raven wasn't thinking anymore. Words started rushing out of her like a waterfall. "I don't like your suit, it's ugly. I don't like your mask, because I can never see your eyes, and so I can't imagine what your eyes actually look like. I don't like your cape, it's too short. I don't like your boots; they look too big on you. I don't like the fact that you have so many fangirls, it makes me jealous. And your stupid dreams. You make sleep too difficult for me, as if it was not already. I don't like your helmet too, the red one, because it looks like a kid's bicycle helmet, and did I mention your cape already? Oh my god, I did, and now I'm rattling like some incoherent retard and you're not helping at all, shit this is no different from talking to your fucking door because you are as responsive as a rock, like those you find in the forests – "

"That's enough."

Her mouth fell shut immediately, and to her horror she realised that she had just poured her heart out to him. She allowed her eyes to slide downwards ever so slightly. _Shit._ In her senseless tirade, Robin had gotten up from the bed and he was already standing in front of the bedside table, watching her with a look that she couldn't decipher. She inched backwards until she backed up again the wall in the far corner, attempting to put as much distance between her and him as possible.

She wished that a hole would appear in the floor and swallow her. She was _so _close to crumpling and dying out of shame. The very tone in his voice had told her everything she needed to know. Rejection was starting to close in on her, and she realised that what she had actually been hoping for was a reconciliation of some sort. She had intended to confess in whatever crazy way her mouth came up with, and she had hoped against hope that he would repeat his confession to her.

So this was a futile effort after all. Raven managed to give a weak smile before she turned to trudge towards the large doors leading out of Robin's room. She was so pathetic. Standing in his presence for any minute longer would just make her look like a pathetic lovelorn fool. She wasn't going to allow that.

She was happy that at the very least she wasn't crying. That would just make her look worse. She was going to hold on to that little pride she had left.

"Wait."

Raven's breath caught, and she didn't dare to look around. She couldn't afford to give herself false hope. Lifting her shoulders up a bit in an effort to not make herself look as pathetic as she already was, she turned her head slightly to the side in acknowledgement of the leader.

"Did you wash your cloak?"

Raven gave a little start, and momentarily forgetting her pride, she turned around and faced the leader in puzzlement. "My cloak?"

"Yeah. I'm asking you if you washed your cloak." Robin paused, that emotionless expression still plastered on his face. "Because that haversack you are carrying is seriously dusty. It's dirtying your cloak."

Raven stared at him in bewilderment. "Are you actually asking me that? I just… I just lost all my pride confessing to you and you ask me if I… washed my cloak?"

Still no readable expression. "It isn't a very difficult question, Raven."

Raven's heart jumped a bit. It had been such a long time since he said her name. Coming back to her wits, she shook her head furiously. She _wasn't_ going to obsess over his voice now. She kept her voice monotonous. "It doesn't matter whether it's dirty or not, because when I leave it's going to get dirtier anyway. So what's the point of washing it now?"

"You've got a point," Robin said thoughtfully. "Why are you carrying such a dirty haversack anyway?"

"Cyborg and BB gave it to me," Raven muttered lamely. "Look, this conversation is getting us nowhere. Will you just give me some face and let me leave now?"

Robin seemingly ignored her remark. "Makes sense, if Cyborg and BB gave that to you. I don't think they know how to keep things clean."

"You're not any better," Raven muttered out of earshot. It was unnecessary to insult him openly now that she was leaving. She kept reminding herself that she was going to part on good terms with the leader.

There was another long silence, before Robin spoke up again. "Get rid of that bag."

Raven held the bag close to her protectively. "Why should I?"

"Just do it."

"No." What did he think she was? A Nike shoe?

Glancing at her protective stance, with the bag held close to her chest, Robin grimaced slightly. "Now you got your cloak dirty too. Take it off."

Raven stared at him, confused. Where exactly was he going with this? He wanted her to throw the bag away, and now her cloak too? "I'm fine with the dirty bag _and _my equally dirty cloak."

And then she saw it. A brief annoyed look flashed across his face, and she saw a bit of the old Robin back in him. But as soon as it came, it disappeared without a trace.

Taking his hands out of his pockets, Robin walked towards Raven, his strides long and swift. Within seconds, he had placed himself right in front of Raven such that she was hidden in his shadow, the two of them standing awkwardly in the corner of his room.

In one fluid motion, Robin snatched the bag from Raven smoothly and flung it to the other side of the room, her belongings spinning out and landing all over the floor. She wanted to leap for it, but she realised that Robin had easily cornered her with just his body. She looked up at him warily.

Still, annoyingly _still_, his face didn't betray any expression. He calmly stuck his hands back in his pockets. "Now take off your cloak."

"No."

"I'll make a deal with you," he said quietly. "I'm not going to say it twice."

Raven looked up at him questioningly. This whole banter wasn't making any sense to her at all. She allowed him to continue without interrupting.

"I'll take off my mask if you take off your cloak."

She felt herself blush immediately at his words, her face heating up like a microwave oven. He couldn't be suggesting… he just couldn't be. "I don't understand," she mumbled.

"You know what I'm talking about. Are you going to do it or not?"

"What if you don't keep your word?"

"Trust me."

"Only if we do it on the count of 3."

Robin sighed irritably. "Fine."

"Okay, we'll count together."

Both of them gave a small pause before starting the countdown.

"One."

Robin's hands had left his pockets again. "Two."

"Three."

Everything else happened in a flash. Raven ripped off her cloak and Robin tore off his mask at the same time, and Robin's mouth was on hers before both items reached the floor.

The sudden cold she had felt when she removed her cloak was immediately overwhelmed by the warmth of Robin's body against hers, his arms pushing her further up against the wall as his mouth explored hers in a sort of hunger she had never sensed in him before.

She realised that whatever so-called pride she had been so concerned about had vanished into thin air. Suddenly, she just wanted him. All those months of love and longing started to rise up within her, and she responded his actions in kind, her hands snaking from his broad shoulders to his messy black hair, her whole being relishing the very feel of him.

And then his hands were all over her, running from her face to her shoulders to her back and then to her waist. She couldn't understand what feeling it was exactly that was making her feel so exhilarated, but she was pretty sure that he had a lot to do with it.

Without even knowing what she was doing, she started to yank clumsily at his hoodie, and she felt him grin against her mouth as he stopped kissing her momentarily to pull it off. To her disappointment, she found out that he was wearing a shirt underneath, but heck, she should have expected it.

And, well, it wasn't like he could pull off her leotard so easily either.

His lips found hers again before she could continue to think rationally, and all reason vanished from her head as she looped her arms around his neck, allowing him to carry her towards the very messy bed on the other side of the living room.

They kind of unceremoniously tumbled onto the bed, and the mixture of desire and shock in Raven caused the bag on the floor to explode. At the sound the two broke away from each other, breathing heavily. Robin's eyes were opaque as he looked down at her, but in one flash of movement, he had replaced the absent mask on his face with a new one.

She gave a little frown. "No fair," she muttered. "I barely got to see your eyes."

"That's too bad," Robin gave a little laugh, propping himself up on his elbows as he studied her face. "I never said how long I was going to keep my mask off."

Raven opened her mouth to retort, but she gave up resignedly. If there was one thing she wasn't able to do, that was winning an argument with the leader. It was always best not to even initiate one in the first place.

Robin's mouth went down to her lips again, but this time it travelled across her shoulder blades. Raven could feel her heart thumping wildly again, but she fought to keep her emotions under control. "Stop," she breathed, pushing him away reluctantly.

"What?"

"Something else is going to explode if we go on."

Robin chuckled. "Mmhmm. You'll just have to clean up the mess later, won't you?"

"Me? But this is _your _room!"

"You know, although none of us has ever brought this up, to be honest your contract hasn't expired as of yet."

"_What?_"

"You heard me right. Since you became a Titan, I allowed your contract to be suspended temporarily. Now that you want to quit fighting, you would just have to go back to being a maid."

"That's not fair."

"I never said it should be fair."

"I have my rights."

"And so do I."

Silence. "I never had a choice to start with, did I?"

"Nope," Robin said cheerfully.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

Both of them allowed another pause, before Robin spoke up again. This time, his voice wasn't as confident as it was before. "So… what's your choice?"

"My choice?"

"Yeah. You can be a maid, or you can be a Titan. The choice is yours," his eyes glinted mischievously. "Either way, you'll have to stay here."

"Wow, what a difficult decision." Raven rolled her eyes sarcastically. She put a finger to her lips contemplatively.

She watched Robin as he walked forward to retrieve his hoodie and her cloak from the floor. And then the feeling of excitement swelled within her. She didn't have to leave. She could stay in the very place she loved, and be with the people she loved. She didn't need to worry for her future anymore. She didn't need to suffer a lonely life any longer.

If it was possible for _any_ demoness to find a place where they felt they belonged, Raven Roth had just found hers. Hell, this was it. She had so many bright prospects ahead of her here; friends to spend time with, people to save, a city to protect. Her future was the least of her worries right now.

Smiling, she looked up at Robin who had returned to the bed, his arms fumbling with his grey hoodie as he started to put it back on. Smoothly, she reached forward and pulled it away, tossing it next to her cloak on the side of the bed. Her arms finding their way back around his neck, she said, "Clean your own room, you lazy pig."

Robin grinned and pulled her mouth to his again. "Whatever you say, you crazy maid, whatever you say."

* * *

**Maid Unleashed has reached its final chapter, but as you all know, there is still a bonus chapter coming up! I have only gotten a few suggestions regarding which character I am going to write about, so in order to make it fairer to everyone please suggest a Titan that you want me to write about in the epilogue along with your review, or alternatively, you can PM me.**

**As for this story, here is a huge, mountain sized THANK YOU to all readers who have read and reviewed this story despite the many delays and the many problems that came with it. To be honest, I had the most fun penning this story as compared to the others because I could write as much nonsensical stuff as I wanted. Now that this story has ended, I will be personally entertaining questions from readers, just so that I can (hopefully) cover up any loopholes in the story.**

**So, keep the reviews and suggestions coming, and look forward to the bonus chapter! If anyone is actually interested, the current majority of the vote for the main character of the next chapter goes to our beloved green titan. If you desperately want someone else, remember to vote for him/her!**

**Till then,**

**-totallyrae  
**


	19. Epilogue

**Author's Note: I am not promoting Project Gotham Racing 2. In fact, I didn't even know what the hell it was until I went on Google to find some nice racing game to put in the chapter. For those who are as lost as me in games, this isn't a made-up game, it actually exists. Enjoy!**

* * *

Cyborg was a little frustrated. Well, maybe more than a little frustrated. _Very _frustrated, in fact. Despite the fact that he knew that this was nothing to be so worked up about, it nagged at him every day and every night, and he knew he wasn't the only one who was feeling slightly annoyed with it all. Beast Boy and Starfire seemed to be pretty affected by the whole matter as well, even though they had different ways of showing it. The Starfire way was to shoot starbolts into the wall with her eyes, while the Beast Boy way was simply to turn into a duck and sulk on the sofa.

Yeah, Beast Boy could actually pull off a sulking duck.

It sounded quite stupid when Cyborg actually thought about it, but he had to admit that it was one of the problems that he – or any other Titan – had never dealt with before.

So, here's the thing. Cyborg was quite pissed off with the newly minted Titan couple.

It wasn't that they were affecting the whole fighting-in-a-team thing. Neither were they making trainings less pleasant, or making Titan meals together awkward. In fact, they were doing the very opposite.

Robin and Raven were not even acting _anything_ like a real couple. And _that_ annoyed Cyborg to no end. They way they behaved around each other was always indifferent and calm, with the whole you-never-know-he-or-she-is-my-boyfriend-or-girlfriend-until-you-actually-ask attitude. In fact, Cyborg didn't learn of the fact that Robin and Raven had officially gotten together until a few days ago. This is how the epic, mind-blowing revelation went.

"Hey Rob! I have a question."

"What?"

"A really personal question. You've gotta promise me you'll answer it truthfully."

"Shoot."

"Do you promise?"

"Why the hell are you sounding like BB? Just ask the damn question."

"Do you like Raven?"

"You can say that." The answer came without a single hesitation.

Cyborg decided to venture further. "Do you think she likes you back?"

Robin calmly flipped a page of the newspaper he was holding without even looking up. "Yeah, probably."

"Sounding confident here, are we? How are you supposed to know that?"

Robin didn't bother to reply. Cyborg decided to throw another question at the leader. "Wait, are you two actually going out?"

"Something like that."

When he had decided to confront Raven instead, the demoness just affixed him with a cool gaze before turning her back on him and walking away.

So much for the epic, mind-blowing revelation. He might as well just have gotten two stones to confess that they were dating each other.

* * *

Now, Cyborg wasn't an expert when it came to relationships, but he had a strange feeling that something was wrong between the two. From all the romance fiction he had read previously (yes, he had his share of romance novels hidden under his bed), both parties should never be able to take their eyes off each other. They would always find some random excuse to be near each other; they would hold hands because they were proud to tell the whole world that they were together. They would smile immediately when their other half stepped into the room, and blush happily when they were being teased about each other.

But Robin and Raven represented a whole new definition of a couple. When Robin walked into the room, Raven didn't seem to have any visible reaction at all. During meal times, they literally _never _sat next to each other. As far as Cyborg knew, he had never seen the two go into each other's room for any reason apart from pure Titan business. They never trained together, unless it was for team training. When the others tried to give both of them personal space, they didn't seem to know how to use it, or in other words, they never said anything to each other even when they were alone. They never went on dates. The only times they went out together were when villains were out wreaking havoc in Jump City. Sometimes, the indifference escalated to such an extent that the two would just ignore each other even if they were in the same room.

If this was supposed to be some kind of joke, it wasn't funny.

So today, Cyborg decided to wake up slightly earlier just to check on them. It was a pretty difficult feat for him, given the fact that he treasured his beauty sleep more than any of the other Titans. Covering a yawn with the back of his palm, he walked briskly towards the large doors leading to the living room. At this time, no one should be awake apart from the two birds.

Stepping through the large doors, he immediately found Robin sitting casually on the sofa, pointing the remote calmly at the television screen as he watched the early morning news. Cyborg usually found this particular news programme ridiculous because the only people in Jump City who would wake up at such ungodly hours to catch it were Robin and Raven themselves.

He also realised that Robin was actually capable of sitting in that position for hours on end without moving a muscle. A potentially new yoga position?

"Oh, you're up early," Robin noted, his eyes glued to the screen as he watched the newscaster drone on and on about how awesome the Titans were for having caught yet another villain. The leader motioned towards the screen. "Control Freak. They're doing some special feature on him."

"Reporters have nothing better to do with their lives nowadays," Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "By the way, where's Raven? Thought she was an early bird too."

Robin shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno. She's meditating somewhere, I guess."

"You guess?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"You didn't meet her just now?"

"Nope. I was doing some early morning training, so she was already gone by the time I came into the living room."

"So you didn't talk to her at all?"

"Nope. Why should I?"

"Do you guys do this all the time?"

"Do what?"

Cyborg shook his head in defeat at Robin's indifferent replies. Taking two quick steps forward, he snatched the remote from Robin's outstretched hand and switched off the television, ignoring Robin's indignant 'hey'.

"What was that for?" Robin grumbled, leaning back against the sofa and ruffling a hand absently through his hair. "I was just getting to the good part."

"The good part? Control Freak doesn't have any good parts. And trust me, Rob, you definitely already know more about that fat guy than the reporters do." Cyborg sighed, and placed himself on the opposite sofa. "Now we are here to discuss you. And Raven."

"Me and… Raven? What's there to talk about?"

"Did you guys quarrel or something?"

"No."

"Disagree over something?"

"No."

"Say something awkward to each other?"

"No."

Cyborg scratched his head in puzzlement. "Then did you guys do something… scandalous with each other?"

"For heaven's sake, Cy, no!"

"Then what's going on between the two of you?"

"What's going on… I don't get what you're driving at, Cy." Robin sighed, reaching forward to retrieve the remote from Cyborg's open palm. "Nothing's going on, so don't get all worked up."

"One last question. You guys are actually… together right?"

Robin affixed Cyborg with a cool gaze. "That's right. Now are you going to interrogate me further or are you up for a round of Project Gotham Racing 2? I'll give you a chance to challenge my title."

The whole Raven and Robin issue flew out of Cyborg's head as he gave the leader the deadliest smile he could muster. "You bet. I'll kick your ass anytime, man."

He lost in the end, but yeah, he never won Robin before anyway.

* * *

The next day (after he had gotten over his 45th loss against Robin for the month), Cyborg decided to talk to Raven about the whole thing instead. In those romance novels, it was usually the more sensitive female who would probably understand where he was coming from.

But alas, he was so wrong.

After lunch, Cyborg grabbed the opportunity to follow the demoness as she glided up the stairs to the rooftop of the tower for her routine meditation. He knew by now that if he did not catch her in time, she would turn into some God-knows-what six-eyed monster if he interrupted her during her meditation. You needed to be very careful with the demon girl. He had seen Beast Boy being tortured into pulp both physically and mentally one too many times.

His question, however, came back with totally useless answers. "I have no idea what you're implying," the demoness said monotonously, fixing him with those dead violet eyes of hers. "And why are you so interested, anyway?"

"Uh, you guys have been acting weird since you got together."

No readable expression whatsoever. "Weird? Meaning?"

"Like you guys don't talk to each other like couples do? I mean, if there's some conflict, you really should let us know. We are your friends after all, right?"

"I appreciate your concern, but there isn't any conflict, Cyborg."

"That's really hard to believe."

"Believe it."

"I…"

"If you don't mind, I'd like to meditate." Raven paused and looked away, arranging her cloak as she proceeded to cross her legs and levitate in mid air. "Alone."

"Uh, yeah, yeah, go ahead and do your… thing." Cyborg muttered lamely, making his quick exit from the rooftop which had suddenly gone a little too cold for his liking.

* * *

"OKAY, I CANNOT HOLD THIS IN ANY LONGER."

Cyborg looked up wearily from his position on the sofa to look at Beast Boy, who had decided to stand on the couch to make his announcement. "Don't stand on the couch, B – "

"We have a very serious issue here! A life or death situation!"

"BB, I said don't stand on the cou – "

"Am I the only observant one here who realises that Robin and Raven are a couple?"

"We all knew that already. Now get off the damn cou – "

"You knew? YOU KNEW! AND YOU MEANIES KEPT IT FROM ME?"

"Are you going to get off the couch?"

"NO!" Beast Boy faltered as Cyborg shot him a death glare nearly comparable to Raven's. "… I mean, yeah, I was going to."

As Beast Boy sheepishly stepped off the sofa, a thought occurred to Cyborg. "Hold on, if you didn't know they were together, what have you been sulking about all this while?"

Beast Boy's frown deepened. "It was World Animal Day one week ago and all of you didn't even remember it. Bitches."

Cyborg slapped a hand to his forehead and ignored the green changeling, who had gone back to sulk. The little green bitch.

* * *

Raven sat at the kitchen table, her cup of tea sitting on the table in front of her, her fingers drumming the surface of the table impatiently.

Okay, she wasn't impatient. She was just, well, waiting.

She thought she actually did a pretty good job of not showing anything in front of the Titans, and she could see that Robin did too. It was pretty much a mutual thing. They had never actually talked about how they were going to announce it to the others, but somehow Cyborg was smart enough to find out first. To avoid making things awkward between them and the titans, both of them had naturally gone back to behaving as per normal when the titans were around. Robin had told her that Cyborg just hazarded a guess at their relationship, and Robin himself affirmed it for the machineman.

However, maybe they hadn't made it clear enough. Cyborg's weird questioning earlier in the morning made it seem like he thought Robin was lying about their relationship. Did they not talk like other couples did?

Hold on. How _exactly_ did normal couples talk? She was going to have to read up about that.

Just as she was pursing her lips in thought, the doors hissed open and in walked the very person she had been waiting for. All thought flew out of her head, but at least she remembered to maintain her normal monotonous expression instead of giving a girlish smile. Demons don't do girlish.

Robin automatically walked towards the kitchen where she was seated. They didn't greet each other normally with a 'hi' or 'hey', because they could never seem to make a habit out of it. Since the first day they met Raven couldn't seem to recall him saying a single 'hi' to her before.

"Having diluted tea again?" Robin asked, casually positioning himself on the seat opposite hers.

Raven rolled her eyes at the remark. "It's the only drinkable thing around here."

"There's water."

"Which you deplete in a matter of hours," Raven said matter-of-factly. "And considering the rot Beast Boy and Cyborg pile up inside the refrigerator I don't exactly want to touch any of the drinks in there."

Robin laughed. "No one's dead yet. Shows that the stuff in there can still be consumed."

"Cyborg has a stomach made of iron for all I know."

"You've got a point there."

Raven smiled. It was common for both of them to have simple conversations like this which could be about anything under the sky. It seemed that he could connect with literally everything she wanted to talk about, and that made moments with him all the more pleasant.

Then she remembered what she had been thinking about before he came. "You know, Cyborg asked me a pretty strange question today."

"Strange? How strange?"

"He asked me if we were fighting or something."

Robin smirked. "That sounds kind of familiar. He cornered me in the hall this morning to ask me whether we were going through some trouble."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "You too?"

"Yeah. He sounded as if he doubted this… thing between you and me."

Raven couldn't help but give another smile. "He told me we weren't behaving like a normal couple would."

"So what, we're abnormal now?"

Raven's hands went up in mock surrender. "Ask our dear friend."

The leader watched her for a while, before getting up from his seat. Raven held her breath as he leaned over the width of the table to plant a firm kiss on her mouth.

Okay, she was _not _going to blush. Demonesses don't _blush_. What a childish way of showing your affections.

Robin went back to his original position and poured himself a glass of water. They sat in silence for a while, each one suddenly engrossed in the drink in front of them. Raven's thoughts were still in mild disarray, so she didn't want to let herself break the silence. She never knew when she was going to break something on accident again.

"I just realised something," Robin started, his hand swirling the cup of water in front of him. "We had to deal with a hell lot of assholes this week."

Raven looked at him questioningly. "We deal with a hell lot of assholes every week."

Robin's face had gone into expressionless mode again. Raven couldn't seem to decipher what he was thinking. "Yeah, but what's the probability of us meeting another villain today?"

"You'd never know. Villains don't exactly follow a timetable as far as I know."

"Yeah. But let's say you can give it a percentage. What're the chances?"

Raven contemplated that for a while. "Well, since we've got quite a lot of villains locked up recently, I'm going to guess that there's a pretty low chance we'll have to fight someone today unless we are really unlucky. Maybe a ten percent chance?"

"Ten percent chance, huh." Robin stood up, putting his palms flat on the table. "Then that means we are going to have to rely on luck to get that ninety percent then."

Before Raven could ask him what he meant, he had already walked over to her side. In one swift movement, he leaned down and kissed her, his warm lips gently caressing hers. But this time, he didn't pull away.

Her thoughts flying out of her head again, Raven responded without hesitation, her arms finding their way around his neck as he deepened the kiss. His hands looped around her waist and with hardly any effort he lifted her up into his arms, allowing her to wrap her legs around him as he walked slowly over to the sofa.

Ever so gently, he placed her on the sofa, his mouth never leaving hers. Both of them were quick to remove their capes, which had become a pretty annoying hindrance. Raven could feel her heart leap in exhilaration and happiness at the feel of him. She wondered if she could maybe try a sneak attack on him and remove his mask. It would be a challenging endeavour, but it might actually work…

The hall doors hissed open suddenly, and the two hardly had time to break away before the other three titans came into view.

There was a huge pause as the others stared wide-mouthed at the sight of the two dishevelled titans. They looked like Slade had just come into the Tower selling cookies.

Cyborg was the first to recover first. "Ah, um, I think we'll just, ya know, go back and…"

"Did you guys just make out?" Beast Boy asked excitedly, cutting off Cyborg's lame efforts of salvaging the situation.

Raven struggled to suppress her laughter. She could see from the corner of her vision that Robin was smirking slightly too.

Cyborg whacked Beast Boy on the top of his head with a palm. "Shut up."

"What is the making of the out?"

"That's alright, Star, you don't really need to know," Robin coughed.

Cyborg cleared his throat. "I just realised I forgot to get something from my room, so I'm gonna go back and grab it. BB and Star, you guys too right?"

"No, why the hell would we miss out something – " Beast Boy started, but Cyborg quickly clamped a palm over his mouth.

With a sheepish laugh, Cyborg exited the room with a protesting Beast Boy in one arm, Starfire gliding confusedly behind him. As the doors closed, Raven could vaguely make out Beast Boy's angry protests that went something like, "No fair! We were just going to get to the good part! It's like watching those chick flicks where the guy goes, 'yeah baby' and the girl goes 'bring it on, biatch' and they have this awesome make out session…" His words were quickly followed a large 'thwack' sound and both Raven and Robin flinched as they tried not to imagine what Cyborg just did.

Both of them stood in the hall awkwardly, their outfits in a mess. Robin cleared his throat. "Now that went pretty well."

Raven burst out laughing. "Yeah, at least Cyborg has nothing to worry about now."

Robin smiled widely. Without hesitation, he looped an arm around Raven's waist and brought her close to him, burying his face partially in her lavender hair. "That reminds me," he mused. "We could always try doing what normal couples usually do. Like dates or something."

"Dates?"

"Yeah, we go out to the movies, grab some dinner, shop, whatever."

"Am I hearing myself correctly? The great Boy Wonder suggesting we take a break from work?"

Robin flicked her nose with one finger. "Get used to it, Roth. You are going to have to handle this Boy Wonder for some time to come."

Raven smiled again. "I think I can handle that."


End file.
